Hercules 2.16 announcement

Apr 23, 2002

Jay Maynard

Release 2.16 of Hercules is now available from the usual suspects.

What's new in release 2.16

Release date: 20 April 2002
PER support (Jan Jaeger, Paul Leisy)
S/370 multiprocessor support (Jan Jaeger)
Licensed software restriction (Jan Jaeger, Jay Maynard)
Performance mods (Gabor Hoffer, Juergen Dobrinski, Greg Smith, and
Paul Leisy)
Interrupt subclass priorities (Greg Smith)
dasdcat program (Malcolm Beattie, Roger Bowler)
Updated TCP/IP documentation (Roger Bowler)
CTCI support for Windows (David "Fish" Trout)
Print to unix pipe (Roger Bowler)
Preliminary Lan Channel Station (LCS) support
HTTP server (Jan Jaeger)
Various fixes (as recorded in CHANGES) (Paul Leisy, Matt Zimmerman,
Greg Smith, Volker Bandke, Bernard van der Helm, David
"Fish" Trout)

Note that the performance mods mentioned are some, but not all, of Gabor
Hoffer's work. Expect more in the next release, and soon in the CVS
repository if you're brave enough.

The LCS support is preliminary, and subject to change...but does work now.

As usual, there are more improvements than the major ones listed above. A
lot of work has gone into the system since 2.15 was released last Christmas,
and a lot of folks deserve credit. Complete documentation is in the CHANGES
file in the source release.

1:38 pm

Hercules 2.16.1 announcement

Jay Maynard

May 4, 2002

Version 2.16.1 of Hercules is now available.

What's new in release 2.16.1
Release date: 4 May 2002
fthreads locking fixes (David "Fish" Trout)
dasdload bug fix (Greg Smith)
FBA dasd devices allow any size disk (Jay Maynard)
Control panel attach command bug fix (Kris Van Hees)
Windows versions (finally) accessible from main page (Jay
Maynard)

This is a maintenance release. Those using Hercules on Windows should
upgrade to the new version as soon as feasible; other users who are not
affected by one of the listed bugs may upgrade, or not, at their discretion.

Here's Fish's comment on the fthreads bug:

This is a maintenance release that corrects a problem that was found in the
fthreads logic of the original 2.16 release affecting Windows users using
fthreads builds of Hercules.

The original 2.16 version of Hercules's fthreads logic contained a flaw that
would in certain circumstances cause Hercules to function incorrectly on
Win9x platforms.

All Win9x users of Hercules are encouraged to immediately upgrade to version
2.16.1.

Windows NT, 2000 and XP users (as well as non-Windows users obviously) are
unaffected by this issue and do NOT need to upgrade (although it shouldn't
hurt to do so); the original 2.16 release should continue to work fine.

The Hercules development team (and Fish in particular) regret any
inconvenience and/or grief this issue may have caused you.

11:36 am

Hercules 2.16.2 announcement

Jay Maynard

May 20, 2002

What's new in release 2.16.2

Release date: 20 May 2002
Fixed 3350 dasdtab entry (Greg Smith)
Fixed 370 interval timer error (Valery Pogonchenko)
Control panel attach command bug fix (David "Fish" Trout)

The latter is a fix for my screwup. Sorry about that, folks.

All users should install this version at their convenience; the attach
command bug causes Hercules to crash when issued. The other two bug fixes
affect 370-mode OS users. (I don't think there's an ESA-mode OS that
supports 3350s, is there?)

4:52 pm

Hercules 2.16.3 announcement

Jay Maynard

Jul 3, 2002

What's new in release 2.16.3
Release date: 2 July 2002
* CTC fix for TurboLinux bug (Jim Pierson)
* 3287 printer support via TN3270 (Tomas Masek)
* S/370 extended memory fixes (Tomas Masek)
* ctcadpt.c compilation fix for FreeBSD (Mark Szlaga)
* Fixed 3270 ERASE ALL UNPROTECTED command to not count data read
(Tomas Fott)
* Fixes to ckdtab in dasdtab.c (Greg Smith)
* Retrofitted cckd chkdsk fixes/enhancements (Greg Smith)
* FBA fixes contributed by Tomas Masek (Greg Smith)
* Compatibility fixes for cckd and 2.17 (Greg Smith)

This release fixes several DASD emulation errors, and has toleration in
place for an upcoming change in compressed CKD processing in 2.17. It's
recommended that all users upgrade to this release.

3:25 pm

Hercules 2.16.4 announcement

Jay Maynard

Jul 4, 2002

What's new in release 2.16.4
Release date: 3 July 2002
* Read backward support for emulated tape (Volker Bandke)
* Added 9313, 9332, and 9335 to list of supported devices (Tomas
Masek)

Sorry about the quick update, folks; these two should have been in 2.16.3,
but didn't make it. If you've got 2.16.3, you don't need to rush to get this
one unless you want to use one of the three FBA devices added or plan to run
Volker's Turnkey MVS system. If you don't have 2.16.3 yet, though, I
recommend you go ahead and get this one.

11:34 am

Hercules 2.16.5 announcement

Jay Maynard

Jul 8, 2002

What's new in release 2.16.5
Release date: 8 July 2002
* Correct serious CCKD image file corruption error (Greg Smith)
* Allow tape files to be opened for input if on CD-ROM (Volker
Bandke)

If you're using compressed CKD DASD with Hercules 2.16.3 or 2.16.4, drop
whatever you're doing and get this release. The toleration fixes in those
releases have a bug that can cause destruction of CCKD DASD images, with no
recovery possible.

2:21 pm