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************************************************************
* *
* The Weather Board (R) Weather Forecast Retrieval System *
* *
* *
* Copyright (c) 1993 By Rhino Ware *
* *
************************************************************
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 1
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................ 1
COPYRIGHT NOTICE ................................. 2
WARRANTY ......................................... 2
TRADEMARKS ....................................... 2
INTRODUCTION ..................................... 2
Feature Summary .............................. 3
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS ............................ 4
INSTALLATION ..................................... 4
Basic Setup for Weather Board ................. 4
The Configuration File ........................ 5
Color Codes ................................... 5
About Modem Settings .......................... 6
HOW IT WORKS ..................................... 6
REGISTRATION INFORMATION ......................... 7
How to obtain your Registered Version ......... 8
Registration Policy ........................... 8
WEATHERMATION NUMBERS ............................ A-1
REGISTRATION FORM ................................ A-2
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 2
COPYRIGHT NOTICE
----------------
Weather Board is a copyrighted program being distributed under the
shareware concept. As such, you may operate Weather Board for a
period of 30 days without registering the software. After the 30 day
evaluation period, you must register your copy of Weather Board or you
will be in violation of United States and International copyright
laws.
As a shareware program, Weather Board may be freely distributed
through a BBS. Shareware distributors may distribute copies of
Weather Board on disk for a modest disk duplication charge not to
exceed $6 per disk.
It is a violation of the Weather Board license agreement to modify the
EXE file in any way.
WARRANTY
--------
Weather Board is distributed without warranty. In no event will Joe
Rhinehart or Rhino Ware be liable to you for damages, including any
loss of profits, lost savings, or other incidental or consequential
damages arising out of your use of or inability to use the program,
even if Joe Rhinehart, Rhino Ware or an authorized representative has
been advised of the possibility of such damages. Joe Rhinehart or
Rhino Ware will not be liable for any such claim by any other party.
TRADEMARKS
----------
Weather Board is a registered trademark of Joe Rhinehart and Rhino
Ware. All other brand and product names mentioned in this manual are
trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.
INTRODUCTION
------------
Welcome to Weather Board! To many people's surprise, a BBS Sysop can
provide callers with the local weather forecast. The whole process is
very low cost, possibly free! Many airports around the country run a
system which provides weather information to pilots, called
Weathermation. Although the service is mainly for pilots, to assist
them in filing flight plans, etc., anyone is permitted to access the
information.
The Weathermation system has many options, one of which is called
Metro Weather. This option produces a plain English weather forecast
for any area of the country, based on the three letter airport ID that
you supply. Weather Board will call the airport's Weathermation
number, select the Metro option and write an editied text file
containing your local area's forecast.
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 3
The National Weather Service updates the forecast about every six
hours. The appoximate times are 9:00 am, 3:00 pm, 9:00 pm and 3:00
am. This varies, up to plus or minus 45 minutes. Of course, if the
weather changes profoundly between normal update times, the NWS will
issue "updated" or "corrected" reports. These can become available at
any time.
You'll have to call the closest airport to get your local
Weathermation number, if its not in the list that is presented later
in this document. Ask for their airport ID also, if you don't already
know it. Bear in mind that the closest Weathermation system may still
be a long distance call for you. That's why I said it is very low
cost and POSSIBLY free. There is no charge for the service, but you
may have to pay long distance telephone charges. Typically, you can
capture the forecast in less than a minute, so even if you do have to
call long distance, your cost for providing this service should be
minimal.
One of Weather Board's chief design goals is ease of installation and
use. It is designed specifically to be run from a batch file, called
as an event from a BBS program or front end mailer. Thus, it can run
completely unattended. If desired, it can also be run manually from
the Dos prompt, or under a multi tasker.
Feature Summary
---------------
Although Weather Board is a relatively new program, it comes equipped
with many powerful features.
Error level support for batch files:
0 - Normal Completion. The weather information was retrieved.
3 - Minor Error: Weather Information not retrieved. Program restart
is possible, depending on the batch file setup.
5 - Major Error: Weather Information not retrieved. Program restart
is not possible.
The program transforms the output file into upper / lower case, and
removes many of the unnecessary or unsightly items from the raw
Weathermation capture file. It also checks for incomplete and garbled
weather reports. Some blank lines are added for improved readability
of the output file.
Weather Board can make use of "primary" and "secondary" telephone
numbers. The primary number is the number you perfer to call most
often. The secondary number is a "backup" number, in case the primary
number is down, busy, etc. The program will automatically switch to
the secondary number if the forecast can't be obtained from the
primary Weathermation site. You can disable this feature if you wish.
You can customize screen colors, the modem initialization string, Tone
or Pulse dialing, communications port and baud rate, Weathermation
phone numbers, number of busy retries and sound. All this is done in
a plain text configuration file, which is similar in layout to one
used in a BBS door.
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 4
There is a log file so you can see what went on during a batch run.
You can turn logging off if you don't want it.
Most Dos error codes are handled by name, and clear error messages are
printed, explaining what went wrong. If an error code pops up that
isn't recognized, it is printed also.
The program will check for the modem responses of CONNECT, BUSY,
ERROR, NO DIAL TONE, NO CARRIER, VOICE and RING.
Weather Board should run under any operating system that supports
MS-Dos applications. I developed it under Windows. Other multi
taskers should not have any trouble running the program as a Dos
application, but its only been tested with Desqview, Windows and
MS-Dos.
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
----------------------
Weather Board has very small hardware requirements. It will run on an
IBM PC or compatible computer with at least 384K of memory, a Hayes
compatible modem, monochrome monitor and a 360k floppy drive.
INSTALLATION
------------
The first step in using any computer program is to install it.
Weather Board was designed with the Sysop in mind. So, if you've
ever installed an online door, you should have no difficulty
installing Weather Board.
Basic Setup For Weather Board
------------------------------
Typically, Weather Board is set up as an external event to be run from
a BBS or front end mailer package. Weather Board should run with any
program that supports external events. After step 3 below, you can
run Weather Board standalone, from a Dos session, by typing Z. Step 4
is just for event setup.
1. Create a directory for Weather Board, usually C:\WB, and move all
files in the Weather Board archive to it.
2. Edit the WB.CFG file for the correct com port, and other options.
The init string should turn off your modem's error correction and put
the phone back on the hook, if its off hook. The default
configuration file is set up to call the Columbus, Ohio number and get
the forecast for Columbus. Change it accordingly for your area. See
the following sections for more details on this subject.
3. Edit the copy statements in the Z.BAT file so the program output
will be copied to one of your BBS's display or bulletin files. The
default batch file is set up for the Wildcat BBS package.
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 5
4. Set up an external event in your BBS or front end mailer program
to run at the appropriate time(s). Make sure the event is set to
"forced", "non sliding", "hard" or whetever your package needs to
ensure that the event runs on time.
To run Weather Board under Windows, copy WB.PIF to your main Windows
directory, then add a program item for Weather Board to any program
group that you choose. See the Windows online help for more
information on this procedure.
To run Weather Board with Front Door, add the contents of the
FDBBS.TXT file to your main Front Door batch file, in the proper
places. Set up an eXternal event in Front Door to run Weather Board
at the appropriate time(s). The default error level in FDBBS.TXT is
45.
The Configuration File
----------------------
Weather Board uses a configuration file to govern its appearance and
operation. Its name is WB.CFG, and it must exist in the Weather Board
directory for the program to run. Below is the format for the file.
Lines can be in upper or lower case, but all of them must be present.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1. The communications port (COM1: or COM2:)
2. The baud rate (9600 maximum, 1200 - 2400 usually)
3. The airport ID for the local forecast
4. Complete file name of the output file for the editied forecast
5. Phone number of the Primary Weathermation System (no dashes)
6. Tone / Pulse dialing string (ATDT or ATDP)
7. Modem init string or NONE
8. State code of the local Weathermation System (OH)
9. COLOR or MONO screen attributes
10. Foreground color (0 - 15)
11. Background color (0 - 7)
12. Number of dial retries (0 - 32767)
13. Log Status - LOG or NOLOG
14. Sound - BEEP or NOBEEP
15. Phone number of the Secondary Weathermation System or NONE
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Color Codes
-----------
The following is a list of DOS color codes. The "Blink" background
means that the foreground character will blink on and off when the
background is set to one of the background color codes 8 through 15.
The "Blink" codes are not supported by Weather Board.
Background Color Foreground Color
--------------------------------------------------
0 - Black 0 - Black
1 - Blue 1 - Blue
2 - Green 2 - Green
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 6
3 - Cyan 3 - Cyan
4 - Red 4 - Red
5 - Magenta 5 - Magenta
6 - Brown 6 - Brown
7 - White 7 - White
8 - Black Blink 8 - Dark Grey
9 - Blue Blink 9 - Light Blue
10 - Green Blink 10 - Light Green
11 - Cyan Blink 11 - Light Cyan
12 - Red Blink 12 - Light Red
13 - Magenta Blink 13 - Light Magenta
14 - Brown Blink 14 - Yellow
15 - White Blink 15 - Bright White
----------------------------------------------------
To add color to your display file or bulletin, edit the WTOP.ASC and
WBOT.ASC files. Add whatever codes are recognized by your BBS package
to activate color. For Wildcat 3.x, it would be something like this:
@06@ at the beginning of the bar in WTOP
@0B@ at the end of the bar in WTOP
@06@ at the beginning of the bar in WBOT
@0F@ at the end of the bar in WBOT
B and F are Wildcat's codes for 11 and 15.
For BBS packages that use straight Ascii to generate color, you would
need to add the Ansi escape sequences manually, with a text editor, or
with an Ansi editor, such as The Draw.
About Modem Settings
---------------------
Weather Board will run only on com port 1 or 2. Its maximum connect
rate is 9600 baud. Standard IRQ settings should be used. Also, the
Weathermation software does not get along with error correcting
modems. In order for these modems to connect and retrieve the weather
forecast properly, you need to temporarily disable your modem's error
correcting feature. This is done with the Init String option in the
WB.CFG file. The string must start with the letters AT followed by
whatever command disables the feature for your modem. Here are some
examples:
USR Sportster : AT&M0 USR Courier HST : AT&M0
Cardinal 9600 : AT\N0 Intel 144I : AT\N0
Digicom Scout + : AT*E0
Using the above strings will not write the setting into your modem's
NRAM. See your modem manual for the setting you need. It should be
listed under something like "error control" or "error correction".
This explanation only applies to error correcting modems. If you are
running a modem that does not support /ARQ or /MNP connections, you
can use the word NONE in the Init String line of WB.CFG, and get a
proper connection to Weathermation.
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 7
Another use for the Init String is to disable call waiting service, if
you have it. If your computer is using a phone line that has this
service, and a call comes in, your modem will be disconnected. For
touch tone telephones, use AT*70, for pulse (rotary) systems, use
AT1170. This will disable call waiting for the current call only.
The service will reactivate when the current call ends.
One other use for the Init String is to increase the intelligence
level of your modem, by adding an X value. Most BBS packages set the
X value to X1, which provides minimum modem capabilities. For Weather
Board, you should use the highest X value that your modem supports.
This is usually between X4 and X7.
HOW IT WORKS
-------------
Here's an overview of Weather Board in operation. First, it calls the
Weathermation number listed in the Primary Number line of WB.CFG. If
there is no answer, the number of busy retries is exceeded, etc., then
the Secondary number is called. The connection attempt process is
repeated. If Weather Board still can't connect, it gives up and exits.
If a connection is made to either number, Weather Board attempts to
get two weather reports: The local Metro forecast, and the State
Summary forecast. At present, there isn't an option to get one report
or the other, but provisions have been made to allow the display of
either or both reports, via the Z.BAT file. Here's how:
The forecasts are stored in files ending in .DAT. For example, the
Columbus, Ohio raw forecasts are stored in CMH.DAT (local) and OH.DAT
(state). The editied forecasts are stored in "2" files - CMH2.DAT and
OH2.DAT. The batch file simply appends these files together with the
WTOP.ASC, WMID.ASC, and WBOT.ASC files and copies them to the proper
places. So, depending on how you set up the copy statements in Z.BAT,
you can dispplay either or both forecast files in one or more
bulletins or display files.
REGISTRATION INFORMATION
------------------------
Skeptical about registering Weather Board? Its understandable. I
want to say right up front that I'm not one of those "grab the money &
run" guys. Running a BBS and doing PC programming is my main hobby.
Its the thing that I do with my spare time. I've been a Sysop since
1986, and I intend to be one for a long time to come. I'm no 90 day
wonder kid either. As of this writing, I'm closing in on age 39, and
have been in data processing for 20 years. So, when I tell you that
you're going to get certain things in exchange for your money, you can
believe it!
Registration of Weather Board is $10.00. Payment must be made in US
funds, drawn on a US bank. Check or Money Order is accepted, made
payable to Joe Rhinehart. The registration form is on page A-2.
Mail to:
Rhino Ware
c/o Joe Rhinehart
760 Cherryhurst Drive
Columbus, Oh 43228-2795
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System 8
How to obtain your Registered Version
--------------------------------------
Once you're sent in the completed registration and payment:
1. Allow a few days for the mail to reach here!
2. Call The Comm * Port at 1-614-870-6544 (9600)
3. When you log on, after filling out the new user information,
you'll receive a message that you have Personal Mail waiting. Select
R to read your message.
4. Your registered copy of Weather Board will be attached to the
message. Select D to download it.
That's it. I think you'll find this a faster, less complicated way to
get your registered copy. You won't have to wait to get a return
package, or have it get lost in the mail. And I can put your message
& file online within minutes of receiving your payment.
Registration Policy
--------------------
What do you get when you register? Ok, let's say you register version
1.00. First, you get a registered program that will never expire, or
display any shareware "nag" messages to you or your users. Next,
you'll be entitled to all minor updates (1.01 to 1.xx) free of charge.
I will start putting the messages / file attaches on the board as soon
as I'm sure that the new release is working properly. Stop by every
so often to see if you have a new message. You also get access to a
special Weather Board conference on my BBS so that you can ask
questions about Weather Board and obtain help on setup or other
program related matters.
If there is a major update (1.xx to 2.00), then you'll have to pay for
it. But, since you are a registered user, your cost is only $5.00 as
opposed to the $10.00 for a new registration. Then, any minor updates
(2.01 to 2.xx) will once again be free. I'll notify everyone about
major updates via message in the Weather Board conference.
I hope you enjoy using Weather Board!
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System A-1
WEATHERMATION NUMBERS
----------------------
The following are all of the WeatherMation numbers I know about. If
you find any more numbers, let me know. I'll update this list ASAP!
The following are the WeatherMation numbers for the state of Illinois.
This number operates at 1200 baud.
Chicago (608) 267-9180
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the WeatherMation numbers for the state of Ohio.
This number operates at 1200 baud.
Columbus (614) 889-5803
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following are the WeatherMation numbers for the state of Virginia.
They were provided by the Virginia Department of Aviation and operate
at 2400 baud.
Abingdon (703) 628-9764
Lonesome Pine (703) 328-8616
Manassas (703) 369-7209 or (703) 369-2474
Mountain Empire (703) 686-6534 or (703) 783-8114
New River Valley (703) 674-1518
Roanoke (703) 362-1151
Shannon (703) 899-0574
Shenandoah Valley (703) 234-9175
Virginia Tech (703) 231-5001
Winchester (703) 662-5645
Accomack (804) 787-7301
Charlottesville (804) 973-3518
Chesapeake (804) 421-4361
Chesterfield (804) 271-7139
Danville (804) 799-5028
Emporia (804) 634-0602
Hampton Roads (804) 488-7817
Lynchburg (804) 237-5721
Mecklenburg (804) 729-2216
Norfolk (804) 857-0941
Petersburg (804) 861-5559
Richmond (804) 786-9046
Suffolk (804) 539-0827
Williamsburg (804) 220-8810
If you have a problem with any Virginia number, call the VA Depertment
of Aviation at (804) 786-1364.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Weather Board Weather Forecast Retrieval System A-2
Weather Board Registration Form
Name: _______________________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________________
City: _______________________ State: _______ Zip: ___________________
Telephone Number: Day: _________________ Night: _____________________
BBS Name: ___________________________________________________________
BBS Phone Number: ___________________________________________________
Modem: ____________________ Maximum Baud Rate: ______________________
Did you have to alter the default initialization string? ____________
If yes, your initialization string: _________________________________
Did you use a Weathermation number that was not in the list? ________
If yes, please answer these questions, so I can update the list:
City: ____________________________ State: ________
Area Code & Telephone Number: ______________________________
Comments: ___________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
THANK YOU for registering Weather Board!