No this is not the usual history file - this is the history of CLX.

Here are some patches and files showing when and how CLX was born.
Some are from original documents and files. Just to make sure, in a few
years someone knows how and when it all started...

It all started in the beginning of 1994. On February 17, 1994 DJ0ZY
wrote to me the following message:

| Msg #4625  Von: DJ0ZY  Datum: 17-Feb 1603Z  Titel: clx
| hi ben,
|  
| habe gestern gebutstag gehabt und so wenig lust zum arbeiten. da ich aber
| ohne beschaeftigung nicht einen ganzen tag verbringen kann, habe ich bisserl
| detailiert die clx idee aufgegriffen. kozeptionell bin ich eigentlich
| fertig. es gefaellt mir immer besser!
|  
| heute habe ich paar der ideen gleich ausprobiert:
| 1. rpc - habe zwar vom gold die neueste version geholt, aber es ist mir nicht
| gelungen es zu kompilieren. es sind eindeutig fehler drinnen! zum glueck
| habe ich bisher (bei einfachen testprogrammen, aber mit rpc zugriffen)
| die rpclib.a nicht gebraucht. sonstige sachen habe ich da.
| es ist es mir gelungen daten ueber rpc zwischen processen sowohl auf
| eigenen auch auf der workstation auszutauschen. es funktioniert.
|  
| 2. postgress - funktioniert ebenfalls ueber das netztwerk. es ist schon
| faszinierend, dass ich von der workstation abragen an die datenbank auf dem
| pc und umgekehrt machen kann.
|  
| zum schluss noch eine gute nachricht. der notwendige aufwand einen test-betrieb
| aufzubauen scheint nicht so schlimm zu sein, falls ich die verwendung eines
| fertigen ax25-programmes voraussetze. der aufwand wuerde hauptsaechlich im
| bereich des nachweises, das es konzeptionell der richtige weg ist, damit
| man einen soliden fundament hat, liegen.
| falls du zeit und lust hast, koennten wir uns noch vor dem montag treffen
| um das projekt schon konkreter zu besprechen. mit grosser wahrscheinlichkeit
| haette ich sogar morgen zeit (nach langer zeit ein freitag ohne eishockey, hi).
|  
| in die liste der unix-tool, die man einsetzen sollte kannst du noch das
| "syslog" einnehmen.
|  
| falls du jemanden hast, der EPROMs brennt, haette ich u.u. auch einen wunsch.
| selber kenne ich leider keinen.
|  
| 73 franta


The final version of Postgres 4.2 was released in March 1994. This
was the version that CLX 1.x initially used.

On June 14, 1994 the first CLX installation was running at DB0PV
under the callsign DB0PV-6. Here is an excerpt from a log file back
then:

| Jun 14 07:43:55 sls syslog: dj0zy->:sh/vers 
| Jun 14 07:43:55 sls syslog: dj0zy<-:clx (r) V1.00^M
| Jun 14 07:43:55 sls syslog: dj0zy<-:Copyright (c) 1994 by dj0zy^M
| Jun 14 07:43:55 sls syslog: dj0zy<-:clx >^M
| Jun 14 07:44:12 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC50^OE1XHB^0^H98^^M
| Jun 14 07:44:48 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC50^DB0BCC^16^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:45:23 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC17^OK1CF^DB0BCC^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:45:57 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC16^DB0BCC^ON7GB - 1^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:46:30 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC24^ON7GB^0^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:47:08 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC17^DG4GAN-7^DB0BCC^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:47:49 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC17^OK1AWQ^DB0BCC^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:48:35 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC19^0^F6KOU-3^0^5443^H7^^M
| Jun 14 07:49:19 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC16^DB0BCC^DJ4YS - 1^H99^^M
| Jun 14 07:49:54 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC50^DB0EGM^1^H98^^M
| Jun 14 07:50:28 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC11^14020.0^C56/DK2OC^14-Jun-1994^0637Z^ ^OE5PX^DB0BCC^H99^~^M
| Jun 14 07:50:28 sls syslog: dj0zy<-:DX de oe5px:     14020.0  C56/DK2OC         0637Z^M
| Jun 14 07:51:12 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC11^14015.0^R0/UR8LV^14-Jun-1994^0638Z^ ^OE5PX^DB0BCC^H99^~^M
| Jun 14 07:51:13 sls syslog: dj0zy<-:DX de oe5px:     14015.0  R0/UR8LV                                   0638Z^M
| Jun 14 07:51:55 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC41^DJ2YA^4^DB0SPC-8^H4^~^M
| Jun 14 07:52:37 sls syslog: db0bcc->:PC11^144305.0^OZ1IPU^14-Jun-1994^0639Z^53 jo57->jo41 at indoor ant!^DC3QB^DB0AMU-9^H4^~^M
| Jun 14 07:52:37 sls syslog: dj0zy<-:DX de dc3qb:    144305.0  OZ1IPU        53 jo57->jo41 at indoor ant! 0639Z^M

Obviously version 1.00 - which was never released. We kept working
and developing more and more software and finally version 1.05
was released to the public. That was in March 1995.

Then followed 1.06 on May 1st, and 1.07 was planned for some time in
August 1995 but then we found a big problem and we had already
contined with the development - so a new release was not possible.
Here is the announcement which was spread out then:

| Dear friends,
| 
| I am sorry to report that the planned release of the new CLX software was
| delayed. Initially we had planned to make the new version available on
| September 1st. CLX 1.07 was laying on my table a few days before and we
| were ready to go. But then we became aware of a little problem which 
| turned out to screw up the whole system.
| 
| The problem was introduced when trying to realize a feature allowing it 
| to talk directly to the node callsign, just like you can TALK to the 
| console operator with AK1A's Packet Cluster. For this, clx would report 
| the node callsign itself as a user call - at least, this was our idea. 
| 
| In the end, TALK worked well, but many other things failed to work.
| First of all, the CLX call would not show up in the AK1A SH/CONFIG
| listing, neither as a node nor as a user. I could direct TALK messages
| to it (by using the "talk call > node" syntax) but it would not receive
| any ALL bulletin files. So in the end, performance was heavily degraded.
| 
| In the mean time, Franta, DJ0ZY, who is the programmer behind the scenes,
| had started to rewrite the code for using the newly released Postgres95
| database system. Initial tests had shown that Postgres95 is by far more
| stable that its predecessor Postgres v4.2 which we were using. We were
| eager to get this working as the old Postgres was a major burden for
| the CLX performance.
| 
| So we are already in the middle of the new version and cannot distribute
| the last release due to errors and problems. This is the bad news.
| 
| The good news is that version 2.0 is already running at DB0PV-6 with
| good results. After a short test period this new version is going to be
| released. The new version will be released as a full version, not as an
| update. All database files will have to be backed up and re-read with
| the new Postgres95. This is not very difficult but it takes some time
| to read in all the DX records. At DB0PV-6 it took 2 hours but we had only
| around 6,000 spots.
| 
| I *believe* that the new version will be available very soon. Our plans
| are aimed at the end of this month. No promises here. You know, this
| is a hobby project.
| 
| 73 Ben

On October 1st, 1995 we made the switch to version number 2.00 as 
many things had changed in the mean time. We used a new database
system, Postgres95, which is the new freely deveopled version of
Postgres 4.2.

On the last days of 1995 version 2.01 came out and on February 1, 
1996 version 2.02.

Today, March 1, 1996, version 2.03 is being released.
