Remember For Windows
In mid-1995 History was re-written in C++ and ported to DOS. At about the same time I
was really getting to like Microsoft's Visual C++ (2.0), and so decided to embed History's
differencing engine in an MFC-based Windows application. I learnt a lot about MFC,
and re-named the tool Remember. The port to Windows was (not
unsurprisingly for that era) called Remember for Windows (RFW), and this was the name to
see it through the next three years. Keep-It supplanted Remember in early 1998 after
much deliberation and being unable to get the 'remember.com' domain!
During the remainder of 1995 and the beginning of 1996, Remember was re-written no less
than eight times! Better object models were employed, folder handling was added,
and the application was made to look more and more like the Windows Explorer.
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In the end, it looked so much like the Explorer, I decided to make it
part of it! Not having a separate application to start (and learn) made
Remember really convenient to use.
However, writing a shell name space extension was no small feat. The
documentation was, how shall I say? Minimal! A long, slow learning curve was
embarked on, and no sooner had I mastered one set of COM interfaces, than Microsoft added
more (IE4, IE5). It's fair to say, the object model for the differencing engine hasn't
changed in two years; I wish I could say the same for the shell
extension code.
In 1998 we embarked on a small Beta program to get the feature set right.
Now in 1999 we have the first release.
This is not to say we've finished. Keep-It 2.0 and add-on products are already
in the works. Keep-It 2.0 will support better web integration and provide a background
snapshot generator. We'll keep you posted.
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