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1985-03-18
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Puppy Prototype 5 Mar 85 T. Jennings
ITEMS MISSING FROM PUPPY AS OF 5 MAR:
Multiple file areas
Configurable message categories
File attach for users
Questionnaires
KNOWN BUGS AND ANNOYANCES:
Whacking CR to determine baud:
You may have to wait one or two seconds after
connecting, before you whack CR to determine the baud rate. The
new multiple baud rates required that the baud detect circuitry
change. I'll try to repair this ASAP.
The baud rates entered must be in INCREASING order, and
PupUp does not enforce this yet.
........................................
If you somehow come across a copy of ProtoPuppy, and you
are not an "official" beta site, please do NOT report errors or
make requests for changes. Use it if you want, but you are on
your own until it is finally released.
........................................
PUPPY'S MANUAL:
This is Puppy's manual. It ain't much, but I think it
will be enough for a current Fido sysop to get Pup running
completely. There is very little you will need to know; run
PupUp first, go through all the menus. You can run Pup in Test
Mode the same as Fido: PUP /T.
One subtle but important change: Pup does not handle
paths as "filename prefixes" as Fido did: it uses real paths.
E.g., to get at subdirectory BARF in the root of B:, use
"B:\BARF", not "B:\BARF\". PupUp will CREATE subdirectories for
you, if they do not exist.
As in Fido, a limit of zero means unlimited. This
applies to all limits, even maximum messages and users.
WARNING: make sure that there is at least one valid baud
rate set in the baud rates to try. Pup will hang forever if
not, and PupUp does not yet check for this.
........................................
INCOMPATIBILITIES:
Pup is NOT a drop in replacement for Fido; many things
need to change. The batch file FIDO2PUP.BAT will make all the
filename changes. You will need to use USER2PUP.EXE to fixup
the user file to be compatible with Pup; the values for help
levels and privileges changed.
The help files are different; delete the ones you have
now.
Please do NOT use SYSOP.EXE on USER.SYS.
Puppy has a complete FidoNet installed; it is completely
compatible. It has a few small inconsequential changes:
incoming mail is marked with FIDONET category, there is a limit
of 10 tries on no connection calls out, and the limit for
attempts with connect is fixed at 1.
You can copy existing Fido messages into a Pup message
area. Those messages will be found in the ALL category.
........................................
CHANGES:
The design criteria for Puppy vs. Fido are as follows.
Fido is incredibly complex. Almost none of the
complexity buys anything, it merely grew like mould. Criterion
#1: Radically simplify.
Fido has too many options: Fido attempts to please
everyone. Criterion #2: Limit Puppy to please 90% of everyone,
and remove silliness.
Fido consumes too many precious resources. Fido is
nearly useless on a floppy system, and there many, many
floppy-based Fidos. Criterion #3: Set reasonable limits on
Puppy's consuming hunger.
Fido is fairly complex for callers to operate. Again,
too many options, mostly in the wrong place. Criterion #4:
Strip out the deadwood commands.
Fido is decidedly nonlinear: the "Can't get there from
here" syndrome. Can't check for mail, command parsing
inconsistent, totally useless and confusing commands. Criterion
#5: Reorganization of the message system, command parsing and
general command structure.
Fido itself is very large and bulky. Three basic
problems here: features were tacked on, making it difficult to
connect to existing code; installation code within Fido itself
(sysop numeric commands); and the hidden gotcha, the incredible
amount of error checking needed for all this. Criterion #6:
Strip out all unneeded installation functions, move the error
checking outside.
Lastly, but most important of all, is maintainability.
I can no longer implement sysop and user requests as in days
gone by; people will just have to get by. There are now 200+
Fidos out there, and I get more questions, problems and change
requests than I could even answer, never mind implement. There
are bugs in Fido that I never found; I will make no attempt to
repair them now. Consider Fido as the prototype; as soon as
Puppy is released, Fido will become "unsupported".
Fido took four hours to compile and link the different
versions; Puppy takes one hour. The code is clean, having been
DESIGNED (more or less), and is once again maintainable.
In addition, there were of course the many enhancements
everyone wanted that were impractical for Fido.
........................................
Much smaller program and operating environment: the .EXE
is less than 64K, should run OK in 128K with one floppy.
Single, unified message area, with a category number
embedded in each message. The old "R)ead" prompt has been
slightly expanded, and serves for the entire message area.
Real mail check when a caller logs on, or at any time; a
separate private mail command. No more "comments to the sysop"
area; a separate "T)oSysop" command.
Settable limit to the total number of messages in the
system.
Privilege levels are now arranged logically, instead of
by command letter. There are 10 user privilege levels, 0 - 9,
where 0 is the lowest, and 9 is sysop. Also, there are logical
levels of functionality, each with a default minimum user
privilege.
2 -- READ Access: Can read messages, but not enter them.
3 -- ENTER access: Messages can be entered as well.
4 -- FILE access: Files can be downloaded, uploaded.
6 -- MAINT access: The message purge and renumber commands,
plus the ability to read everyones messages.
7 -- DISK access: The ability to set temporary paths, and
use the V)iew and K)ill commands.
9 -- SYSOP access: All commands.
The privilege needed to access each level above can be
changed with PupUp. The defaults are more or less equivalent to
Fido's levels, with the exception that all users can access the
commands listed in the last line of the prompt.
User list almost compatible with Fido; a fixup program
will convert from Fido to Pup.
Pup handles up to four different baud rates; each is
settable and can be anything supported by the drivers (generally
110 to 9600); defaults are 300 and 1200 only.
User list can be set to a fixed number of users; when
full, new users replace the oldest NORMAL privilege caller with
no credit or debit.
Install program (PupUp) instead of horrible command line
switches. The only switch is /T, Test Mode. The install
program is used to set user limits, modem type, private/public,
maximum messages and users, baud rates, message length,
schedules, and all other setup type parameters.
Comments to the sysop are addressed to the first name
found in the user record instead of just "Sysop".
Central command line parser. The bad news is that you
can't do "R22" and more, thtere must be a space. The good news
is that you can stack commands almost anywhere, such as "M C F E
51" to enter the M)essage prompt, select C)ategory F)idonet, and
enter a message to Fido 51.
A maximum number of messages can be set; new messages
cannot be added beyond that point until some are deleted. It an
also be unlimited as in Fido.
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