Whimsy adds personality to your Hermes BBS by allowing you to display any of a multitude of text and ANSI files to users randomly for your Welcome, Logon, and Logoff screens, regardless of which node they call in on. It is extremely easy to use, the screens can be totally customized (you supply them yourself), and changes take place immediately.
Version 1.1.1 adds full alias support and the ability to understand Hermes variables. This version will only work with Hermes 3.3 or later. It is Shareware.
You should probably read this entire file to avoid confusion. Familiarity with the Macintosh operating system and the Hermes BBS system are assumed.
Quick Start
After quitting out of the Hermes BBS, put the file “Whimsy 1.1.1” into the “Externals” folder inside of your “Hermes Files” folder. Upon relaunching Hermes, a new folder will be created in the “Externals” folder called “Whimsy Folder” (if one does not already exist). Inside will be three more folders called “Welcome”, “Logon”, and “Logoff”. Inside of each of *these* folders will be two folders entitled “ANSI” and “Non-ANSI”. Any text files placed within these folders will automatically be added to the pool from which Whimsy randomly draws its respective screens (more on this below). Note that you can add and remove files while Hermes is running without causing problems for the external. At this point, for each type of screen that you will be using Whimsy for (Welcome, Logon, or Logoff), you should back up your standard Hermes screens (from within the Hermes application menus) and then delete the originals (select all the text and clear it). Otherwise, your users will see two screens.
Details
The latest version of Whimsy for Hermes versions prior to 3.3 is 1.0. Lucena Systems has no plans to release a Whimsy 1.1.1 that works with earlier versions of Hermes.
Text files that you intend to use with Whimsy don’t have to be in any particular format. They can have any creator as long as they are of type ‘TEXT’. Files created within the Hermes text editor, BBEdit, TeachText, SimpleText, and dozens of other products will work fine. Text will be automatically wrapped, though it’s a good idea to force line breaks so that the file will look like you want it to on screen. Also, there are known problems with getting Hermes to pause properly when displaying screenfuls of improperly terminated lines.
ANSI-detect is not supported for Welcome screens on Hermes versions prior to 3.3, although full-color ANSI images are supported. As a result, all 8-bit characters and ANSI codes will be put up on screen as best the user’s terminal is able. In other words, try to restrict yourself to the standard 7-bit characters to avoid gobbledy-gook being thrown up on your users’ screens, unless you feel sure that all your users have ANSI. Note that users don’t have to have color to see ANSI properly (usually). Something else to remember is that most users only view 24 lines at a time. This means that you should avoid making your Welcome and logoff screens longer than about 20 lines (leaving room at the bottom for logon or logoff information).
Files within the screen folders in the “Whimsy Folder” may be organized in any fashion you like. This means that you can group them within folders and subfolders, and Whimsy will still be able to find them. Text files placed inside of the “ANSI” folder in a given folder will only be visible to users with the ANSI setting on in their Defaults. Likewise, files placed into the “Non-ANSI” folder can only only be seen by users without ANSI. Files that reside in neither folder can be seen by both groups of users.
For the time-being, all folders are treated equally in terms of weightedness in the randomization algorithm (apart from restrictions based on the availability of ANSI), so from Whimsy’s standpoint, 20 text files could just as easily be dumped into one folder as nested within 20 subfolders. One caveat - Whimsy’s sophisticated file-handling routines require System 7 on the BBS machine. This should not be an issue since Hermes practically requires System 7, anyway.
In the event of an unforseen File Manager error, Whimsy will use the default screens stored in the ‘TEXT’ resources within the external itself. These resources may be customized with the resource editor of your choice or left in their defualt state. ‘TEXT’ 860 is the default Welcome screen, ‘TEXT’ 861 is the default Logon screen, and ‘TEXT’ 862 is the default Logoff screen. Note that there is no differentiation between ANSI and non-ANSI default screens, so you should design these screens to be viewed without ANSI.
Since Whimsy supplements Hermes’ built-in Welcome, Logon, and Logoff screens, it will always display the Hermes built-in screen. For this reason, you should probably back up the Hermes screens and then delete them from the BBS. This feature exists so that using only some of Whimsy’s randomization features will be less of a hassle. If you ever remove Whimsy, you will need to restore whatever Hermes screens you previously deleted.
Whimsy completely loads a file into memory before displaying it. This should not be an issue, as a 10-page file takes up less than 70k, and Hermes should have much more than 70k of memory free at any given time. If there is a memory failure, Whimsy will attempt to use the corresponding default screen stored in its ‘TEXT’ resources. All the same, you probably won’t have to increase the Hermes memory partition just to run Whimsy - though you might want to increase it if you’re running several other externals.
For Welcome screens, there is no pause prompt given if the screen runs on for more lines than the user is able to view at one time. This is partially to increase the speed of display (no unnecessary checks) and partially because there is no way to detect how many lines any given user may be able to view before they’ve actually logged on.
Bugs and “Undesirable Features”
• If a user calls in on an ADSP node, they may not see a screen.
• If the user messes up their logon info, they will get a second
Welcome screen. While this isn’t standard behavior, it’s way low on
my list of things to correct or add, so it’s not too likely to get
fixed unless it’s related to one of the more pressing problems.
Fine Print
Whimsy is Keyware, which is sort of like Shareware with teeth. Until you register, a certain percentage of the screens that it displays will be reminders to you to register the software. This percentage might even increase over time (or at least seem to)...
In order to register, send snail mail containing...
• Your board’s registration name as it appears within Hermes.
Capitalization and spaces are important, so be exact. Also,
please specify whether a given character is a letter or a number,
if it’s ambiguous (0’s and O’s, for example).
• The short (8-character) serial number that’s shown at logon.
• Your name, and how to reach you electronically (either e-mail
address or Olympus user number).
• $10 to license just Whimsy, or $20 for all Lucena Systems
externals (in the form of either a US-drawn check or money order).
Send everything to...
attn: Whimsy Registration
Lucena Systems
PO Box 4549
Mountain View, CA 94040
Upon receiving your check, Lucena Systems will e-mail you the code that will work with your Hermes BBS and register Whimsy. You will be blessed with good karma, and a free conscience.
Thanks for checking out Whimsy, and enjoy its capricious ways.
Be sure to survey some of the other Lucena Systems externals, including Blatherskite, Modesty (free), and Savant. We offer an innovative way for you to own all of them. Each external is $10 to register for all versions, through as many updates of Hermes as we continue to write externals for. And for only $20, you will be an official registered user of a copy of every external that Lucena Systems ever writes for the Hermes bulletin board system. By supporting this novel scheme, you’ll be ensuring that we continue to write externals for a long time, and you’ll be getting an even better value.
Watch for other Lucena Systems products where you found this one!
