I made the changes you recommended. However, I did not change the Total Weight to Weight. Doing so would require me to update all my e-commerce webpages. So, as a way out, I modified the TotalWeight Column to that of an integer. I updated all my shippable items to reflect a value of 1.
Going back to your recent recommendation. Even with your recommended changes, the cart is still erasing the shipping calculation when the quantity field is manually updated. For example, if a shopper wishes to increase the quantity of an item being ordered from one to two of the same item by changing the quantity figure manually in the cart and then clicking the 'update' button, the cart appears to not recognize the change in quantity and removes the shipping calculations completely. When you attempt to go to checkout (without the shipping calculations), the value does not pass through.
However, if the quantity value is not manually changed, the shipping calculations work just fine.
I am at a loss as to what to do. Do you have any other thoughts? I have included an updated copy of my eCart_PHP file (with your recommended changes) for your convenience.