FreeCEN Administration Tools—Revision log

Explanation

These routines use “Major.Minor.Edit” version number codes pioneered (I think) by DEC in the late 1960’s. The Edit number changes with every bug fix. The Minor number changes for small section re-work or new features added. The Major number changes for gross re-work. Lower levels drop to zero when higher levels are incremented. Regression testing is done at the Minor release level.

Go to the download page for the latest version

FC-TOOLBOX

Each sub-module is separately versioned, the number can be found at the top of each .BAS file and in the top right hand corner of the first screen of each module..

• FCTMENU — Current version 1.2

  • v1.2.0—08Sep2002 #6 VALCONV added to menu
  • v1.1.01—31Mar2002 Tutorial & Browser provisions added
  • v1.1.0—29 Mar 2002 new SUB “changedrives” for Drive Identification
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• QCHK — Current version 1.2.02

  • v1.2.02—Scotland added to prompts
  • v1.2.01—13Jun2002 Remove debugging “STOP” inadvertently left in last time
  • v1.2.0—09Jun2002 add sub “fixfilename” to work 8+3 format filenames
  • v1.1.01—03Apr2002 \wkg changed to \tmp
  • v1.1.0—29Mar2002 altered to allow changeable drive IDs
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• C2D — Current version 1.3.0

  • v1.3.0—03Sep2002 revised to rebuild .VLD files
  • v1.2.0—09Jun2002 sub “fixfilename” added to work 8+3 format filenames
  • v1.1.01—03Apr2002 <Esc> taken out again!
  • v1.1.0—29Mar2002 drives.dat records variable drive ID letters
    <Esc> to Quit
  • v1.0.01—21Mar2002 Add Q to Quit at “Select Drive” (Page4)
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• D2C — Current version 1.3.01

  • v1.3.01—15Sep2002 intro pages revised with regard to permitted input files. Reference to file-type .VAL now 'hidden'
  • v1.3.0—03Sep2002 altered to be able to process *.VLD files
  • v1.2.0—09Jun2002 sub “fixfilename” added to work 8+3 format filenames; routine renames "short" filenames in \fctwkg\ to 8+3
  • v1.1.01—03Apr2002 <Esc> taken out again!
  • v1.1.0—29Mar2002 altered to accept changeable Drive IDs
    <Esc> to Quit added
  • v1.0.01—Q to Quit added at "select Drive" (Page4a)
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• FIXPARMS(.BAS) — Current version 1.1.01

  • v1.1.01—03Apr2002 <Esc> taken out again!
  • v1.1.0—29Mar2002 altered to accept changeable drive IDs
    <Esc> to Quit added
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• ZIPIT — Current version 1.2.01

  • v1.2.01—24Jan2004 Scotland added to prompts
  • v1.2—08Sep2002 revised to handle .VLD (validated) files
  • v1.1.04—01Jun2002 bug removed (namefiles2: in makezip$ routine was not including ‘newfile$’—the .CHE file!!)
  • v1.1.03—16Apr2002 bug removed to allow filnam3$="" for Transcr files
  • v1.1.02—14Apr2002 namefiles(1/2/3) revised to test name of file entered. now accepts filename less than 8 chars.
  • v1.1.01—03Apr2002 <Esc> taken out again!
  • v1.1.0—29Mar2002 altered to accept changeable Drive IDs
    Esc to Quit added
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• HOWTO — Current version 1.2.0

  • v1.2.0—14Sep2002 options list revised for .VLD handling
  • v1.1.01—30Mar2002 options table and Browser location amendments
  • v1.1.0—29Mar2002 altered to accept changeable drive IDs
  • v1.0—Initial release.

• FCT.BAT — Current version 1.1.0

  • v1.1.0—03Apr2002 \tmp\ sub-dir was previously \wkg\
  • v1.0—Initial release.

CSVCHECK

CSVCHECK.EXE — Current version 2.3.1

Written by Peter Cox and used with permission. The version number is in the title bar.

Conversion programs

These are the C programs that do the work. The version number is at the top of each source file and also in the error log output on each run.

csv2dat

Current version 4.11.2

• v4.11.2—Allow non numeric book numbers (actual format not checked).
• v4.11.1—Report if 1841 book numbers is used on other years or SCT pieces.
• v4.11.0—Check that all input is in the subset of ISO8859-1 as required. Fix 4.10.9 no longer necessary.
• v4.10.9—Problem with library detecting 3/4 and 1/2 characters as digits.
• v4.10.8—Don”t set flags for relationship warnings as they could easily be valid but unusual.
• v4.10.7—Bug in reading some CSV files. Needed to strip leading spaces before quotes.
• v4.10.6—Uprate an invalid sex to an Error because WinCC complains.
• v4.10.5—Change a non numeric age into a dummy 999y so that Valdrev doesn't complain.
• v4.10.4—Correct a bug in the handling of 1841 book numbers in non validated files.
• v4.10.3—Correct the case of the Chapman codes aux file name.
• v4.10.2—Add comma to the reasonable character set.
• v4.10.1—Add extra information to the “Field too long” error message.
• v4.10.0—Add unsupported feature - check relationship codes against a master list. relcodes.txt (one per line, with initial capital) and use -r switch.
• v4.9.2—Add & to the reasonable character set because it is common in the disability column.
• v4.9.1—Check for a reasonable character set for many fields and warn if any cells stray from this - particularly nemerics.
• v4.9.0—Implement the 1841 Book Number facility using Cell B1 for the starting value, incrementing each time the folio numbers reset. There is an override in Column AC for validated files only.
• v4.8.12—Change terminology from Eccl. Parish to Eccl. District.
• v4.8.11—Version 4.4.5 was wrong to remove Eccl. parishes from 1851.
• v4.8.10—Supress consecutive spaces in fields (mostly in Notes)
• v4.8.9—Ignore Z deletion markers. See dat2csv edit 4.6.8.
• v4.8.8—Implement the Gaelic question.
• v4.8.7—Raise severity of "Fields too long" to an Error.
• v4.8.6—The Welsh language question applies from 1881 and the field can contain ‘-’ but should not be blank. Determine Welsh pieces by the presence of the language flag on the first record. For English pieces (and Scottish for the moment) this field should be blank
• v4.8.5—Allow for the SCT prefix in A1 (as output by dat2csv).
• v4.8.4—Supress warning about excessive gap before folios at start of part pieces.
• v4.8.3—ENG/WLS 1841 whole pieces can have ED numbers out of order.
• v4.8.2—The path length check was a little too lenient.
• v4.8.1—Improve the understandability of the fatal errors.
• v4.8.0—Allow for ho4 for 1841 ENG/WLS.
• v4.7.5—Check for zero age values.
• v4.7.4—Open the aux file from the same directory as the binary (rather than the CWD as before). This is generally correct but fixes a specific problem when called from CSVCHECK.
• v4.7.3—Allow up to 128 character paths and check the bounds. This is to cater for XP which is particularly verbose.
• v4.7.2—Remove spurious warning if aux file failes to open.
• v4.7.1—Add “book” to the folio messages for our Scottish readers.
• v4.7.0—Allow for accented characters according to ISO 8859-1.
• v4.6.6—Remove the word “Error” from the flag names to remove confusion about their purpose.
• v4.6.5—Check for and flag any “?” that occur in data.
• v4.6.4—Don’t do county code check for 1841.
• v4.6.3—Correct spurious warning if cell A1 is too long (allow more space).
• v4.6.2—Correct spurious warnings if ED only contains one page.
• v4.6.1—Make more warnings set the corresponding flags.
• v4.6.0—Check county codes are valid.
• v4.5.3—Extend married age check to widows.
• v4.5.2—Extend the birth place flag to cover alt-place.
• v4.5.1—Detect 999y and set detail flag so it gets highlighted.
• v4.5.0—Sort out “?” removal and report it correctly.
• v4.4.13—Allow for files which don’t end properly with a newline character (e.g. those from Macs and Unix).
• v4.4.12—Tidy up the SCT position. No years have folios but some checks re-instated for book numbers which use the same field.
• v4.4.11—Allow “!” coding for schedule numbers > 999
• v4.4.10—Properly check the length of the ED, folio and house number fields.
• v4.4.9—Allow schedule numbers to exceed 999 (special hack)
• v4.4.8—Allow notes in b/u/v/n records
• v4.4.7—4.4.5 was wrong, the disability field does occur in 1851 census.
• v4.4.6—Uprate the “Employed status doesn’t fit” message to an error.
• v4.4.5—No Eccl. parish or Disability in 1851
• v4.4.4—Allow for 1851 split pieces
• v4.4.3—Fix a bug in extracting fields from CSV which should have created havoc (but didn't?)
• v4.4.2—Check for fields ending in “?” and remove them, set the flag and issue a warning.
• v4.4.1—Add todays date to the error log (there is no where to put it in the data file).
• v4.4.0—Ignore CSV lines with no content.
• v4.3.10—A bug in the propagation of the ecclesiastical parish name created misleading results in 1841.
• v4.3.9—Edit 4.3.2 over did it a bit. Restore the propagation of folio numbers even for SCT 1841, but make the default zero.
• v4.3.8—Uprate the invalid flag messages to Warning.
• v4.3.7—Partially check cell A1 for a valid piece number and uprate the message to a Warning.
• v4.3.6—Supress warning about address changing in the middle of a household if it is just a dash. Also warn if house number changes.
• v4.3.5—Uprate age not numeric to an Error.
• v4.3.4—Uprate ED not sequential message to a Warning.
• v4.3.3—(forgotten what this was)
• v4.3.2—Supress folio errors for SCT 1841 because they don’t have them.
• v4.3.1—Correctly insert an employment status without the trailing “)” if required.
• v4.3.0—Add a check for consecutive schedules numbers the same (if inhabited and not zero)
• v4.2.0—The “DELETED” marker in the Notes field is interpreted correctly and generates a warning.
• v4.1.8—Supress some warnings for shipping because they tend not to conform to the normal layout.
• v4.1.7—"fix" the error when a new household after an uninhabited did not have a schedule number and mark the record in error.
• v4.1.6—Improve the error reporting to ensure that as many errors as possible, even Fatal, get to the error file and that it is always closed properly before exiting.
• v4.1.5—Check that the file type switch corresponds to the number of columns of data in BRIEF mode (not possible in ALL mode). Also don’t open the output file until all the fatal errors are out of the way. This avoids generating an empty file.
• v4.1.4—Detect address changes in the middle of a household.
• v4.1.3—Detect when the first record after an uninhabited building is not a new household.
• v4.1.2—Relax the message about uninhabited building not new household, but now fix the output.
• v4.1.1—Soften the message about too many lines on a page
• v4.1.0—Restructure program to better detect household changes
• v4.0.6—Make the age warnings the same as the IN-CENS specification
• v4.0.5—Escalate “uninhabited in the middle of a schedule” warning to an error because it creates an invalid output file.
• v4.0.4—Warn about changes to parish and folio in the middle of a page.
• v4.0.3—Supress first page and first schedule warnings for institutional ED changes.
• v4.0.2—Supress non sequentioal schedule number messages for merchant shipping.
• v4.0.1—The ecclesiastical parish is not being propagated down the column correctly.
• v4.0.0—Program adapted to support the new VALD-REV file format (in addition to the existing IN-CENS, CHECK-CENS and SS-CENS formats). Note—version number 3 was never used to restore harmony with dat2csv.
• v2.2.2—Check that the head of household is the first entry in a schedule and issue a warning if not (but not vice-versa as that is legitimate).
• v2.2.1—Yet another bug fix in the SCT file name decoding.
• v2.2.0—Allow for csv files from other architectures. PC ends \r\n, MAC ends \r, UNIX ends \n.
• v2.1.2—Info message if cell A1 is blank.
• v2.1.1—Final rework now all census file names have been decided.
• v2.1.0—Rework the extraction of information from the file name to cater for Scottish census etc.
• v2.0.27—Allow for RG09 for 1861
• v2.0.26—The message regarding schedule change in the middle of a household is up-rated to Error.
• v2.0.25—The non-numeric household member number message is split into blank (warning) and other non-numeric (error) messages.
• v2.0.24—Fix wrong (removed).
• v2.0.23—Only put out the missing registration district message once and change it to missing parish number for 1841.
• v2.0.22—Corrected usage message & deprecated -b switch. BRIEF mode changed to SS-CENS mode.
• v2.0.21—Changed name of error file to .erc to keep them separate.
• v2.0.20—Counting of pages per folio corrected.
• v2.0.19—Check cell A1 matches file name.
• v2.0.18—Report QUIET mode in the error log.
• v2.0.17—Made version suitable for unix.
• v2.0.0—Added spreadsheet data entry facilities (-b BRIEF mode), considerably expanded error and warning messages and made it suitable for public release. Compiled with gnu C compiler under MINGW.
• v1.0.0—Cornwall only version for my own use compiled with Borland Turbo C++ 4.5

dat2csv

Current version 4.7.4

• v4.7.4—Allow non numeric book numbers.
• v4.7.3—Problem with library detecting 3/4 and 1/2 characters as digits.
• v4.7.2—Correct the case of the Chapman codes aux file name.
• v4.7.1—Removed spurious </a> from HTML (continued) lines.
• v4.7.0—Implement the 1841 Book Number facility.
• v4.6.15—Change terminology from Eccl. Parish to Eccl. District.
• v4.6.14—Version 4.4.4 was wrong to remove Eccl. parishes from 1851.
• v4.6.13—Allow for consecutive EDs the same number but different parishes in 1841.
• v4.6.12—1841 can have house numbers, why did we think not?
• v4.6.11—Supress the trailing space on the id attributes.
• v4.6.10—Allow for many more occasions when a spurious comma can leak through to the CSV format output.
• v4.6.9—Remove the id attributes from 1841 HTML ED headers. Duplicates are possible which would be invalid HTML code.
• v4.6.8—In ALL mode, change blank deletion markers to ‘Z’. This is to stop spreadsheet programs from deleting blank columns from the left edge of a file.
• v4.6.7—Implement the Gaelic question.
• v4.6.6—The Welsh language question applies from 1881 and the field can contain ‘-’ but should not be blank. Determine Welsh pieces by the presence of the language flag on the first record. For English pieces (and Scottish for the moment) this field should be blank
• v4.6.5—Output id attributes on the HTML ED headers for reference by the index.
• v4.6.4—The path length check was a little too lenient.
• v4.6.3—Improve the understandability of the fatal errors.
• v4.6.2—Include the parish name in the header of all partial pieces for web output.
• v4.6.1—Report output file name in messages file.
• v4.6.0—Allow for ho4 for 1841 ENG/WLS.
• v4.5.4—Open the aux files from the same directory as the binary (rather than the CWD as before).
• v4.5.3—Allow up to 128 character paths and check the bounds. This is to cater for XP which is particularly verbose.
• v4.5.2—Correct the detection of truncated files (so it works).
• v4.5.1—Allow for accented characters according to ISO 8859-1.
• v4.5.0—Correct the reporting of non-printable characters.
• v4.4.10—Remove the word “Error” from the flag names to remove confusion about their purpose.
• v4.4.9—Check the number of counties in the aux file
• v4.4.8—Allow “!” coding for schedule numbers > 999
• v4.4.7—4.4.4 was wrong, the disability field does occur in 1851 census.
• v4.4.6—Spurious </p> in output HTML.
• v4.4.5—Bug in 1841 template handling
• v4.4.4—No Eccl. parish or Disability in 1851
• v4.4.3—Allow for 1851 split pieces
• v4.4.2—Include notes field onto web page (thus removing private feature)
• v4.4.1—Add (todays) date to output in various places.
• v4.4.0—Highlight flagged fields in web output using <em>
• v4.3.4—Add a private feature for my own web site.
• v4.3.3—Supress the folio number if it is blank.
• v4.3.2—Interchange Folio and Page number on Web output (because it was daft the other way around)
• v4.3.1—Allow for more mis-spellings of the employee status codes and upper/lower case errors.
• v4.3.0—Don’t clear the remainder of uninhabited records in case the stuff is needed due to other errors.
• v4.2.2—Correct the message saying where the error file is on web output.
• v4.2.1—Include #9 Schools in the list of special institutions which had been forgotten.
• v4.2.0—The handling of deleted records has been improved and the -Z switch added.
• v4.1.4—Uprate the ED not numeric message to a Warning.
• v4.1.3—Reduce the severity of “household member number = 0” to Info.
• v4.1.2—Improve the error reporting to ensure that as many errors as possible, even Fatal, get to the error file and that it is always closed properly before exiting.
• v4.1.1—In BRIEF mode trigger full record output if the parish changes.
• v4.1.0—Restructure the program to make the code easier to follow.
• v4.0.2—Note if an ED is continued and say so on the WEB output.
• v4.0.1—For WEB output, use the correct version of Birth County and Place values if they had been changed during validation.
• v4.0.0—Program adapted to support the new VALD-REV file format (in addition to the existing IN-CENS, CHECK-CENS and SS-CENS formats).
• v3.3.5—Restrict warning below to years after 1841.
• v3.3.4—Put out a warning if the schedule number is blank and change it to zero.
• v3.3.3—Yet another bug fix in the SCT file name decoding.
• v3.3.2—Final rework now all census file names have been decided.
• v3.3.1—Put “deleted record” message out in ALL mode as well as BRIEF mode.
• v3.3.0—Rework the extraction of information from the file name to cater for Scottish census etc.
• v3.2.22—Omit Welsh language marker if blank. This preserves English pages as they were.
• v3.2.21—Allow for RG09 for 1861
• v3.2.20—Print Welsh/English language marker onto web pages.
• v3.2.19—The warning about the first household not being number 1 is up-rated to an Error.
• v3.2.18—1851 didn't have an uninhabited field. Allow for this in WEB output.
• v3.2.17—Corrected usage message & deprecated -b switch. BRIEF mode changed to SS-CENS mode.
• v3.2.16—File name wrong in Template file failed to open message. It also doesn't pause to allow you to read the message but I haven't found a way to fix that.
• v3.2.15—Deleted records failing to be marked correctly.
• v3.2.14—When a <CR> is detected, just blank out that character instead of the remainder of the record in the hope that something may be salvagable.
• v3.2.13—Stiil a problem with the ED buffer. Need to reset the end point on each iteration in case it is overwritten.
• v3.2.12—With a sufficiently corrupted data file the buffer for ED can overflow causing later problems in the file. Allow sufficient space.
• v3.2.11—Change the name of error file to .erd to keep them separate.
• v3.2.10—remembered why I left them out. Partially reverted the code.
• v3.2.9—Re-instate the wordy “Uninhabited” type legends removed from WEB mode by an earlier decision.
• v3.2.8—Ignore address flags in WEB mode.
• v3.2.7—Substitution of text in web footer corrected.
• v3.2.6—Output piece name in cell A1 in capitals.
• v3.2.5—Report QUIET & VERBOSE mode in the error log.
• v3.2.4—Segmentation fault if data file empty caused by closing the output file when it hadn't been opened.
• v3.2.3—Made version suitable for unix.
• v3.2.2—Removed obsolete -f (FINAL) mode.
• v3.0.0—Rewrote the resynchronisation routines to make it better at re-aligning records and included synchronisation support for checked data files as well as transcribed ones.
• v2.0.0—Added spreadsheet data entry facilities (-b BRIEF mode), considerably expanded error and warning messages and made it suitable for public release. Compiled with gnu C compiler under MINGW.
• v1.0.0—Cornwall only version for my own use compiled with Borland Turbo C++ 4.5

fixparms

Current version 1.3.1

• v1.3.1—Corrected usage message & deprecated -i switch.
• v1.3.0—Add feature to allow transcriber id and name to be changed.
• v1.2.3—Made version suitable for unix.
• v1.2.0—Made it suitable for public release. Compiled with gnu C compiler under MINGW.
• v1.1.0—Added -a List All function.
• v1.0.0—Cornwall only version for my own use compiled with Borland Turbo C++ 4.5

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