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1994-11-01
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Maximus Version 2.02
Revision History
Created November 1, 1994.
Copyright 1990, 1994 by Lanius Corporation. All rights reserved.
Maximus and Squish are trademarks of Lanius Corporation.
INTRODUCTION
This file describes the changes made between Maximus 2.00 and
Maximus 2.02. This release is a minor maintenance release, but
it adds some small features and corrects a number of defects in
existing commands and functionality.
New features in Maximus 2.02
* A new file transfer protocol driver. This driver supports
Ymodem and Ymodem-G, in addition to faster implementations
of the existing protocols. Support for Telink was dropped.
* Internal support for the FrontDoor nodelist format. Max can
now directly read the nodelist files used by FD 2.0x and FD
2.1x, so FD users no longer have to create a separate
nodelist.
* Internal support for the Version7 nodelist, as used by
BinkleyTerm 2.50 and above. Users of the V7 nodelist will
realize a significant space savings over the older V6
format.
* Max can now use the userlist capabilities of both the
Version7 and the FD nodelists to provide name lookups in
netmail areas. If you use V7 or FD, a FIDOUSER.LST is no
longer required.
* Improved multitasker detection for DOS.
* Support for the FD 2.1x "CALLER.nnn" interface file.
* Major performance improvements for FB, especially on CD-ROM
drives.
* Commands on the Browse menu will now "mirror" the equivalent
commands on your message menu.
* A new "Global High Bit" keyword for non-English systems.
* Improved handling for 4D point systems using multiple
addresses.
* A selectable default origin address for each individual
netmail area.
* New "Toggle Kludge Display" and "Unreceive Message" commands
on the message menu.
* A "[download]" MECCA token. This allows the sysop to
specify a full path and filename to be downloaded, without
using [menu_cmd download] (which relies on the file being in
one of the file areas).
* A new status display for the QWK mail packer.
* The filename for the protocol data file (PROTOCOL.MAX) can
now be selected in MAX.CTL. See the detailed list of
changes for more information.
* A keyword to permit single-word names, even for the "real
name" logon prompt.
* Menu titles can now include "%" characters, such as "Title
MAIN (%t mins left)".
In addition, Maximus now requires the use of the "IBM",
"IBM/snow" or "BIOS" video modes. The DOS, FAST and FOSSIL
output modes are no longer supported.
For more information on any of the features described above,
please see the detailed list of changes.
Detailed list of changes between Maximus 2.01wb and Maximus 2.02
* SILT should now be able to handle up to 4,600 areas
x FB/2 will now use the HPFS "write" date as the file date,
and the HPFS "create" date as the upload date. Also fixed a
small problem that caused FB to skip certain file entries.
x The "/tb" parameters in FILES.BBS are now case-insensitive
x Fixed a problem with the FD nodelist routines that caused
some messages to appear with a cost of 32767
x Max should now recognize private messages created by the
WinQWK reader
x Max/2 and SILT/2 should now be able to recognize CD-ROM file
areas
x Fixed an accounting problem that used to allow users to
reset their download statistics
x Fixed a problem with barricade files that sometimes caused
the barricaded priv level to become "sticky" and last for
the rest of the session
x Fixed a problem with certain strings causing a system crash
when used in the "reason for paging sysop" part of the yell
command
x Fixed an out-of-memory error that occurred when performing
many replies using the browse command
x Fixed the RoboCop error message
x Fixed the "out of file handles" problem for PKZIP and other
archivers under OS/2
x Fixed a problem with the L)ocate command that occasionally
caused Max to orphan memory
x Fixed a bug with the multi-line delete function in BORED
x Fixed a bug that caused the editors to trap when entering an
empty message
x Fixed the [download] token so that it now works as
documented
x Fixed a problem with the Chg_Alias command
* Changed to a new protocol driver. Support for Telink was
dropped, but internal support for Ymodem and Ymodem-G was
added. A new windowed user interface (on the sysop side) is
also supported when users are downloading files.
Detailed list of changes between Maximus 2.00 and Maximus 2.01wb
- Maximus now prompts the user to press <enter> after
displaying the Version screen.
x Fixed a problem in the OS/2 version which sometimes caused a
trap when performing an area list.
x WELCOME.MEC can now start with a colour of [cyan].
x Fixed a bug in the BORED D)elete command which allowed users
to specify a starting line which was greater than the ending
line.
x If a "%" is placed as the last character on a line for a
DownloadCmd, Max will no longer create a garbage text
string.
x The W)ho Is On command will now show the proper text when
users are downloading QWK packets and when chatting with the
SysOp.
x Max will now properly handle aliases when using the
multi-line chat.
x A problem with the F)iles command not always showing the
T)ag option at the bottom of the file list has been fixed.
x When displaying the "Bad pwd 'xxx'" error message because of
a failed password attempt, Max will now log the password
that the user ENTERED, as opposed to incorrectly logging the
password which was required to gain access to the area.
x Fixed a potential problem with the SEAlink file sending
code.
* Implemented partial support for the Version 7 nodelist. By
adding this statement to the Matrix section of MAX.CTL:
Nodelist Version 7
and by deleting your old "Nodelist Version ..." statement,
Max will use the Version7 nodelist.
Notes:
. At the matrix prompt, the net list ("/") and node list
("#") functions are *NOT* supported when running V7,
and unless someone else writes the code to do it, they
probably never will be.
* Implemented support for the FrontDoor nodelist.
To enable the FD nodelist code, add this statement to the
Matrix section of MAX.CTL:
Nodelist Version FD
With this option enabled, Max will expect to find
NODELIST.###, NODELIST.FDX, USERLIST.FDX, FDNET.PVT (if
any) and FDPOINT.PVT (if any) in your nodelist directory.
Max can use the FD nodelist for lookups, but the same
browsing restriction (lack of the "/" and "#" commands)
apply to the FD nodelist as well as V7.
Notes:
. The nodelist will be used both to look up addresses and
SysOp names. Node lookup works as usual, but when
processing an unknown SysOp name, Max will do things in
this order:
- Check for aliases in ALIAS.MAX.
- Check the V7 nodelist, if any.
- Check the FrontDoor nodelist, if any.
- Check FIDOUSER.LST, if any.
x When performing a global T)ag, Max will now check for any
FileOverrides in an area before allowing the user to tag
files in that area. Previously, this only worked for
barricades.
x Fixed a bug which caused redirection in an xtern_run command
to "stick" even after the shell has been executed.
x Fixed a bug which caused the user's "time on today" field to
be doubled when using ReRead or "@" with xtern_dos/run.
x Fixed problems with the MsgOverride handler becoming greedy
and overriding the commands on the EDIT menu in addition to
the MESSAGE menu.
x Fixed a problem which caused Max/2 to trap when displaying a
message with no kludge lines.
x Fixed the untag message area function. When untagging any
given area, untag would sometimes untag the prior area too.
* Max now has a new way of handling the multitasker
autodetection:
If "Multitasker None" is specified in MAX.CTL, Max will not
use any multitasker code at all, nor will it try to detect
one.
If "Multitasker Auto" is specified in MAX.CTL, Max will
behave as it did in 2.00/rel.
Similarly, the -mn and -ma command line switches can also be
used to achieve the above results.
Also, the MultiLink and DoubleDOS detection code was removed
because of instability problems. (Those of you who run
non-dedicated Novell servers will know what I mean. :-) )
If you use MultiLink, you'll have to specify so explicitly
in the control file or on the command line.
x The colour specified for "Hotflash Bar" will now actually
work.
x The Yes/No/=nonstop characters will now be used from the
current language file, rather than only the first one
specified in LANGUAGE.CTL.
* Added support for the CALLER.nnn interface in FrontDoor
2.10+. This allows Max to be spawned without a dozen
command line arguments, as follows:
max -iC:\FD\CALLER.0
This causes Max to read the caller information from the
specified file, taking the caller's baud rate, port rate,
locked baud rate, and other factors into account. FD will
create CALLER.1, CALLER.2 and so forth for additional nodes,
so multi-line systems can use multiple caller files like
this:
max -n%task% -iC:\FD\CALLER.%task%
x ACCEM will now properly decompile [menu_cmd] tokens.
x Took out the "Pig Latin" feature in MaxEd.
* Minor performance improvements for FB, especially on CD-ROM
drives.
x Fixed a problem with FB hanging when it runs out of disk
space.
x Fixed an erroneous error message in SCANBLD which pops up if
every single user in the user file has an alias declared.
x Fixed a bug in the MSC/WC version of FB which caused a trap
when a file with a blank description is encountered.
x Max will now let the SysOp enter netmail messages,
regardless of his/her "credit" setting.
x Max/DOS will now allow a "-p" command line parameter greater
than 8.
x Fixed a bug which stopped Max from properly hurling files on
a network.
x Fixed some spurious RoboCop messages.
x The user editor can now accommodate download and upload
totals in excess of 65 megabytes.
* The search command in the user editor (and the "@Edit User"
menu option) will now check the user's alias for a match.
x Removed the code to support the "Compatible Localbaud"
feature. This is pointless with the new user record, and it
was also causing the last-call dates to be damaged.
x When using the FSR, the "area header" will only be displayed
the first time you enter an area or when a
non-message-displaying command is entered. (This means that
you won't see the header when doing N)ext, P)rior, C)urrent,
etc.) Since everything else is shown on the FSR header
anyway, this information doesn't need to be duplicated.
x Max will no longer allow users to post to a read-only area
using the off-line reader.
x When browsing messages in hotflash mode, hitting an invalid
key at the browse menu will no longer cause the hotflash bar
to change colours to white on black when the "Try again"
message is displayed.
* The "Kill" and "Reply" command on the Browse menu will now
mirror the equivalent commands on your message menu, on an
area-by-area basis.
In other words, any access modifications you make to the
"Reply" command on the message menu will also be used to
restrict access to the Browse Reply command. The same
applies for the Browse/Kill command. Note that both of
these restrictions are IN ADDITION to the "Mailchecker
Reply/Kill" settings in MAX.CTL. All access restrictions
are taken into account, including the priv level on the menu
itself, barricades and overrides.
The "Reply" priv level also applies to uploading messages
with the QWK reader.
x Added extra protection against users uploading files called
FILES.DAT, FILES.DMP and FILES.IDX.
x High bit characters should once again work in the logoff
comment area.
* A new keyword has been added to facilitate European systems.
Placing the following keyword in the SESSION section of
MAX.CTL:
Global High Bit
instructs Max to allow high bit characters almost anywhere.
This option is automatically enabled when using "Charset
Chinese".
This command enables high bit characters everywhere in the
system, except in message areas. To allow high bit
characters in a given message area, the "High Bit Allowed"
keyword must be explicitly specified for each area.
CAUTION: Using this command means that callers with 7 bits
and parity will NOT be able to log on to your system until
they change to 8N1!
x Fixed a bug which caused SILT to erroneously report high-bit
characters in origin lines as bad, even when the area was
declared with 'High Bit Allowed'.
x Max should now be much more amenable to Chinese characters,
even used throughout the BBS.
x The 'time' field on uploaded QWK messages will now be parsed
correctly.
- Streamlined the menu handling code. Max should now be much
quicker when reading .MNU files from disk.
x ORACLE will now show a non-zero value for the [syscall]
token.
x When parsing the destination address on a QWK-uploaded
messages, Max will now ensure that it starts with a digit.
If not, Max will create it as a local message (instead of
sending to the net host, like 2.00/rel did :-) ).
In addition, blank lines after the "To:" will also be
stripped on import.
x The QWK U)pload function should now properly support "Alias
OK" message areas.
x The normal access restrictions will now apply when trying to
forward a message into a read-only area.
x Max will now properly truncate too-long fields in
PROTOCOL.CTL.
x The dots displayed when performing a Browse have now been
replaced by a "rotating line".
x When creating a QWK packet, the SysOp's full name will be
used. Max will also add the correct phone number to the QWK
packet, even if spaces are included.
x Fixed a bug in the .BBS-displaying routines which caused Max
to improperly skip over certain lines.
x When 'Reboot' is turned on, Max will no longer reboot when
hitting <Alt-J> from the WFC screen.
x If "Alias System" is enabled, the user's alias will now be
written by the [post] token.
x Fixed a bug which caused Max to crash when a [colour] token
had no following [endcolour].
x Max will now ensure that an Xtern_Erlvl protocol cannot be
used for uploading a message.
x The [syscall] token will now return the correct ordinal
suffix for systems with more than 65,535 calls.
x SILT will no longer attempt to write SYSTEMxx.BBS or DIR.BBS
(if the Opus option is specified) if the area is declared
with a FileList.
x CVTUSR will no longer grunge the screen length/width
settings when converting from an Opus 1.1 user file.
* When writing an origin line on a point system, Max will
always use the address AFTER the one specified in the
"Origin" statement when writing to the seen-bys. In other
words, given this:
Address 1:249/106.4
Address 1;24906/4
Address 89:487/106.3
Address 89:33451/3
Using "Origin 0" (the default) would create messages like
this:
* Origin: asdf (1:249/106.4)
SEEN-BY: 24906/4
and using "Origin 1" would create messages like this:
* Origin: asdf (89:487/106.3)
SEEN-BY: 33451/3
x Max/2 will now clear the inbound character buffer before
trying to accept the user's first name. This will get rid
of extraneous <esc>s which caused the first character of the
username to be lost.
x Max will now check the "Minimum Baud" rate right after
displaying the Maximus logo, instead of waiting for the
caller to enter a name.
x Fixed a problem with hurling files with descriptions more
than 120 characters long.
x Fixed a bug which caused an incorrect display of pathed
filenames in FILES.BBS.
x Max will attempt to identify and correct uploaded messages
with a bad date. If such a message is found, the timestamp
is set to the current date, with a time of 00:00:00. (This
ensures that a doubly-uploaded packet will be properly
caught by dupe checkers.)
x Fixed a problem with users getting a "TIME LIMIT" message
after an upload that went over their time limit, even though
the upload should have been rewarded with more time.
* The default origination address for netmail areas can now be
selected. When entering a message in a netmail area, Max
will use the origination address indicated by the "Origin"
line in MSGAREA.CTL, if any. The origin text itself will be
ignored (if used at all), but the number specifying the AKA
will be used to select the default origination address.
x MECCA is now compiled in the compact memory model, meaning
that it can handle more than 48 labels in one MECCA file.
* The [xtern_os2] and [xtern_shell] commands are now synonyms
for [xtern_dos].
x If files queued with the T)ag command would exceed the
user's time limit by the time she/he gets around to
selecting D)ownload, Max will print an error message and
allow the user to edit the filename list, as opposed to just
dumping all of the filenames.
* Added two new menu commands: Msg_Unreceive and Msg_Kludges.
The suggested configuration is this:
Msg_Kludges Sysop "!Toggle Kludges"
Msg_Unreceive Sysop "#Unreceive Msg"
The Msg_Toggle_Kludges command toggles the visibility of
kludge lines within messages. If this command is not used,
the priv required to see kludge lines defaults to the value
set in MAX.CTL.
The Msg_Unreceive command will remove the "Rec'd" bit from
the current message. This can be used to make it look as if
you have not received a particular message.
If either or both of these commands are placed on the
message menu, they will also show up on the Browse menu
(assuming that the user has sufficient access rights).
x When handling carbon copies in the message editor, Max will
now ensure that the 'cc' name fits within the "To:" field.
x The cc: command will now work properly for users with a dot
(".") in their names.
- When downloading QWK packets, the "Press <enter> or wait 10
seconds to download" prompt will now appear AFTER the file
statistics are displayed.
* Added a [download] MECCA token. "%" characters are
supported. This command adds a filename to the download
queue; to send this file to the user, your MECCA file must
also include [menu_cmd download] (or call the Download menu
function). If the filename is preceded by a "!", the
download will not count against the user's download limit.
If the filename is preceded by a "@", the download will not
count against the user's time limit. These two flags can be
combined. ie. "[download]@!d:\max\util\max200-1.lzh".
x Fixed up some small cosmetic problems when running Max/2 in
a Vio window.
* Added a new status display for the QWK packer.
* Added a new "%" token: %y will now display the "last call
date" for the current user.
x Max will now write a blank line when opening the log file,
instead of when the log is closed.
x Fixed a small cosmetic problem with the "Menu Name" colour
and the REGULAR help level.
x Fixed a trap problem in FB/2.
x MECCA should once again be operational. I found that the
standard OS/2 "sort" program was not case-sensitive, so it
caused the token table to be improperly sorted (and thereby
breaking any mecca tokens which contained an underscore).
x Fixed a bug which stopped SILT from creating SYSTEMxx.BBS
files for areas that had a Squish-format message area and a
normal file area.
x ORACLE will now print the opening banner to stderr instead
of stdout.
x Stomped an extremely paranoid bug which caused lastread
pointers to become corrupt if there were more than 2K users
in the user file.
x The H)url command should now properly stomp over ^Z
characters in FILES.BBS.
x The "Save Directories" statement is now ignored under OS/2.
Aside from the fact that OS/2 does this automatically, it
was causing problems with block device drivers (such as
Sytos drives).
x Max will now strip control characters ( < ASCII 32) from
uploaded QWK messages. It was supposed to be doing this in
the first place, but a coding error prevented the stripping
routing from being called.
x Fixed the tab expansion routines when using a local editor.
In addition, Max will now check locally-entered messages for
invalid high bit characters in non-high bit areas, just as
it does for the internal editor.
x Max should now correctly handle carbon copies entered using
an external editor.
x Max will no longer generate duplicate MSGIDs when processed
multiple carbon copies. Unfortunately, this means that
there may be a bit of a delay when saving carbon-copied
messages.
x The C)ontents command will now properly display the
\max\hlp\contents help file.
x If a user runs out of time right after downloading a QWK
packet, Max will ensure that the user's lastread pointers
are updated before he/she is logged off.
- When building more than one .QWK packet in a session, Max
will build the second and subsequent packets using an
extension of .QW1, .QW2, and so forth.
* The path and name for the PROTOCOL.MAX file (binary dump of
information in PROTOCOL.CTL) can be specified in the SESSION
section of MAX.CTL. The following keyword:
ProtocolCtl d:\max\protocol.max
instructs Max to use d:\max\protocol.max as the protocol
information file for the current task. If this keyword is
omitted, Max will default to using PROTOCOL.MAX in the
current directory.
x Fixed a long-standing bug which caused Max not to find a
file such as "FTS-0009.LZH" when the given search pattern
was "009", as opposed to "0009".
x Added semaphores to prevent the internal QWK reply tosser
from colliding with itself on another line. When two users
were unpacking replies at the same time, Max extracted the
packets into the current directory, thereby causing a
potential conflict. Although the packets are still
initially unpacked into the current directory, this is done
under the protection of a semaphore, and in addition, the
.REP file is moved out of the way as quickly as possible.
x Security fix: added protection from Leech Zmodem.
x Tightened up error checking in SILT.
x Fixed a bug which caused spurious "Archiver returned
errorlevel 0" messages after packing more than one QWK
packet in one session.
x When writing quotes to a temporary file to be read by an
external message editor, Max will now always wordwrap the
quotes at 80 columns, since 132-column quotes (or whatever
the user's screen width was set to) look messy on other
systems.
* The new keyword "Single Word Names" can be placed in the
SESSION section of MAX.CTL can be used to allow single-word
names at the log-on prompt.
x Fixed a bug in the forward command which caused the user's
matrix credit to be deducted BEFORE the destination address
was entered in the message header.
x Max should once again honour the 'Mask Carrier' in MAX.CTL,
at least in the DOS version.
* The "Title" directive in MENUS.CTL can now include "%"
characters. eg. "Title MAIN (%t mins)".
x When creating message areas, SILT will now create a
directory tree (if necessary) to store Squish areas.
x When rewarding upload time, Max will now give back the
MINIMUM of the following two values:
1) The actual length of time it took for the user to
download the file.
2) The estimated time required to download the file.
This prevents users from resuming the last 2K of a 400K file
and receiving a time credit worth 400K for doing so.
x Fixed a bug in the library RTL which prevented Max/2 from
sending files on a remote network drive (!).
x When performing a QWK pack, Max will now display "Warning!
Too many messages packed!" if the user's message limit has
been reached after all of the area totals have been printed.
x The ^q and ^s keys will once again work in MaxEd.
x Fixed a bug which caused strange characters to appear if a
cursor key is pressed at a MaxEd "I don't understand X"
prompt.
x Max will now replace spaces in uploaded Zmodem filenames
with underscores.
x Fixed a problem in Max/2 that caused Max to ignore IPCxx.BBS
files if they were stored in lower case.
x Changed the Max/2 startup code to allow up to 40 file
handles to be opened. This should prevent weird behaviour
if Max inherits "too many" file handles from the parent
process.
x Fixed a bug which sometimes caused MaxEd to lock up when
receiving a ^c from the local console.
x When performing a U)serlist, the search command will now
only search the field that is displayed on-screen. In other
words, when Alias System is enabled, users can only search
for strings in the "Alias" field. Similarly, if Alias
System is NOT enabled, users can only search for strings in
the "Real Name" field. Note that callers with a priv of
SYSOP can search for strings in either of the above two
fields.
x Fixed some Max/2 trap problems when performing a locate
using a FileMenuName.
###