Development History
-------------------


*** Clobberd 4.10

   - released 27/8/1999
   - lots of changes!
   - a text based data file reintroduced (from version 1.x).
   - user lists became sorted.
   - various revisions to clobbertool.
   - network volumes specified in Megabytes (and stores in 64 bit).
   - implemented threading for notifying and clobbering users.
   - added terminal info structure to clobberd- to better manage multiple
     user connections.
   - sundry fixes here and there.


*** Clobberd 4.8

   - released 26/5/1999
   - implemented big user names (32 characters)
   - still have network voluming problems
   - philip morgan compiled and released the user manual for 4.3
   - Stephen Walsh created the clobberd list server.


*** Clobberd 4.5 ???

   - I don't remember releasing a 4.5, but it seems to be around.


*** Clobberd 4.3-1

   - released 10/1/1999
   - Very minor updates.
   - Was going to be the last effort with clobberd until Phillip Morgan,
     Stephen Walsh and a few others incouraged me to continue
     developing it to at least to a bug free state.
   - had Network voluming bugs in it. Also, had a user name length bug
     that i never noticed until mid 1998.


*** Clobberd 4.2-1

   - released 6/11/1998
   - Very first appearance of version 4.
   - Was only available on my web page. as nobody locally was interested
     in using it, i threw it on my web page and forgot about it for a few
     months.


*** Clobberd 4.0

   - Development started mid August 1999.
   - took a month to make. It was a cut down of the failed version 3. 
     half of the code with recycled.
   - the good bits of 2.x and 3.x were used to make 4.x.
   - this version like 1.x, was designed for stormfront.com.au, but the
     ISP wasn't interested in using the release.

.
.
.

*** Clobberd 3.8

   - Axed in January 1998
   - design was flawed
   - Previous stable version was 2.9.


*** Clobberd 3.2

  - Released 7/11/1997
  - Totally rewritten. Totally different design from 2.x


*** Clobberd 2.9

   - Released 3/10/1997
   - Very minor updates from 2.8 (it was virtually 2.8)


*** Clobberd 3.0

  - Development began on 13/8/1997.
  - A distributed model for a cluster of terminal servers.
  - clobberd 3.x was the biggest revision. much bigger than 4.x.


*** Clobberd 2.8

  - Released 28/2/1997
  - A very popular revision. Probably the most popular revision.


*** Clobberd 2.4d

  - A sysop of an ISP sent me a patch with various new features
    and updates. I lost the original email, so i don't know who it was. he
    left no comments in the patch.
  - He added 'lenient modems' feature that is still with clobberd today.


*** Clobberd 2.4

  - Released 11/11/1996.
  - rewritten from scratch.
  - This was the first "useable" revision


*** Clobberd 1.1

  - Released 5/9/1996.
  - A novel hack. Designed for stormfront.com.au


*** Clobberd 1.0

  - development began at the start of August 96.




A brief history of Clobberd..
-----------------------------

Back in Aug 96, clobberd was just a small utility written for one ISP. A
hack. I quick "do up", just so that this ISP could function.  Before
clobberd, this ISP ran internet software through a BBS, which did all the
accounting. It wasn't possible to do this with Linux, because back then,
things like monitor daemons didn't exist. 

There were a few problems with it, but generally it worked well enough,
and so i figured that maybe there would be other ISP's similar to the one
i was at, that could use a free piece of monitoring software. So i
released it. 

I got a big response from ISP's. All of them were very impressed with it,
but requested extra features. The requests were so diverse, i decided to
rewrite it from scratch, and write a tidy implementation. It got released
as 2.4 in November 96.

Again, the response was very big. Still ISP's, and even some Universities
were requesting very complex features. From about Dec 96 to July 97, i
metered about 300 requests by people to implement new changes. So, as you
can see, the demand for new features was quite large. I implemented what i
could within the scope of 2.x, but the addon's were making it very very
messy and complicated to use. 2.8 ended up getting released about Feb 97. 

I decided to develop 3.x- a networked version with remote maintenance,
data monitoring, time zones, timeouts, multiple login detection, and many
other features. Unfortunately, my design made networking very inefficent
and very unstable. The over all design was very bad. Also, people who I
counted on giving me support and helping me out didn't. So cruical testing
in the phototype never got done, and design flaws became amiss. It wasn't
until 3.x was publically released (November 97), that the flaws became
noticed. Clobberd 3.x was recalled and scraped at the end of January 98.

Even though 3.x was a bad design, it still had some very good ideas in
it, that many people requested. It was a shame to waste the code. During
98, i had ideas to recycle 3.x, and turn it into something of good use.
So, to end on a good note, i decided to develop 4.x which i started
working on in August 98.

4.x was initially developed for the ISP that started Clobberd off
(Stormfront Technologies), but the SYSOP's lack of interest caused me to
steer designs away from what he needed. i decided to take all the good
points of the 2.x and 3.x distributions, to make a complete, stable,
feature rich distribution. hence, what you see how. 

Since version 4.3, clobberd has been steered by suggestions from the
clobberd listserver, with preference given to local ISP's. clobberd has
been an ever changing distribution that attempts to meet the needs of an
ever changing user requirement. if you want some input on how you want
clobberd shaped, then please submit a suggestion on the clobberd
listserver. all comments are welcome, but majority rule. popular
suggestions get implemented, less popular ones don't, and suggestions have
to fit within the clobberd implementation scope, but even this changes..



                                    oo0oo
