From: G.Chiozzi
							Date: 17 Nov 1997


             VLT-SW-NOV97 - RELEASE NOTES FOR ECCS & EVH
             ===========================================

fnd
---

    Changes: (respect to MAY97)  

	- An official user manual has been written and man pages updated.

	- Added new fndAUTO_PTR class, based on the auto_ptr class
          defined by the ANSI Draft but not implemented in GNU C++.

	- Cleaned up memory proplems found by Purify

    Known problems:

        - none
	  


eccs 
----

    Changes: (respect to MAY96)  

      This release contains mainly bug fixing.
      On top of this, the database read/write and tracing
      functions and classes have been substantially improved.

      - eccsDbWrite.C (dbWrite): 
        Added retrieving of dbATTRTYPE for vectors and tables.
	All dbWrite functions now call the new static usility function
	dbGetItemAttrType().
 	This function checks first if the attribute name (both parts)
	contain at least a '(' character.
	If not, the attribute must be a dbSCALAR.
	If yes, than it can be also a dbVECTOR or a dbTABLE. In this case
	dgGetAttrInfo is called.
	This introduce a small performance penalty, but in general this
	should have not significative impact on performances.

	Added optional parameter to check buffer size on read write
	to GetValue(), SetValue(), DbRead() and DbWrite() methods
	of the basic class.

	Removed initialization of values in subclasses. 
	In this way the first time the attribute is accessed, LoadInfo()
	is always called.
	This introduces a small performance penalty while reading or
	writing an attribute for the first time, but in this way the
	classes work weel not only for dbSCALAR attributes but also
	for elements of tables and vectors.

      - eccsALARM classes:

	ATTENTION: Backward incompatibility!!!

	Methods envName() and envBranch() have illegal names, starting
	with lower case letters.
	They have been replaced by the legal EnvName() and EnvBranch(),
	but this unfortunately introduces a backward incompatibility.

      - Event handling
	The issues related to spr. 960264 and 970281 have been solved
        and now also LCU events can be used safely 

      - Improved message tracing messages

    Known problems:
    
	- none

evh
---
   
    Changes: (respect to MAY97)  

	* evhDB_TASK class: 
	Constructor and desctructor now set the state respectively to
	LOADED and OFF only if the state is not already set to that
	value. This reduces the number of events at application startup
	and shutdown.

	* evhDB_TASK:
 	Added handling of database write acces rules for state.
	If at creation time the dbpoint.dbWriteEnabled attribute has the value
	FALSE, the instances relying on this support point will NOT write
	any data in the	database, but are only allowed to read from it.
 	In this case the state of the instance is kept only internally.
	It is then possible to build instances
	that only read their configuration from the database but that
	never write "actively" in the database.
        This allows also 100% backward compatibility.
	Added new protected method: 
                  vltLOGICAL        EbWriteEnabled();
	Added/changed private attributes:
                  vltLOGICAL        dbWriteEnabled;
                  vltINT32          state;
                  eccsDB_INT32      dbState;
	Modified constructor and State() methods.
	
	* evhCOMMAND class:
 	Modified callback-set methods Reply() ErrReply() and Timeout() to
	accept NOOBJECT as callback. This will will clear the callback.

        * Bug fixing an minor improvements (see ChangeLog for details)

    Known problems:
    
	- none

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