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ShareWare OnLine Volume 2 (CMS Software)(1993).iso
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MAXIBANK.NEW
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1993-03-27
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March 27, 1993
new for BANKER.EXE
------------------------------------------------------------------
there are 2 new options, and if you decide to use either or both
of these new options then you'll have alter your commandline when
running BANKER.EXE. You'll need to add the correct switches before
the various filenames in order for Banker to function correctly.
------------------------------------------------------------------
typeing "BANKER ?" at the DOS prompt shows this brief help screen.
BANKER v2.14ß a MaxiBank utility. Adjusts TimeOnToday.
Usage: BANKER /B<bankfile> /U<userfile> /L<logfile> @<textfile> $
/B<bankfile> = path/filename of the MaxiBank data file.
defaults to MAXIBANK.DAT
/U<userfile> = path/filename of the Maximus USER file.
defaults to USER.BBS
/L<logfile> = path/filename of a Maximus CBCS style log
file NO default.
@ = global function NOT to subtract withdrawal
from User's TimeOn Today.
@[textfile] = Check TEXTFILE for a list of user names to
apply the @ option.
$ = REFUND unused withdrawal amounts if TimeOn
Today is less than withdrawal amount.
Note: the v1.02 commandline "Banker <bankfile> <userfile> <logfile>"
is still valid, but to access the new IGNORE withdrawal option
or the REFUND option requires you specify the correct switches.
eg: "Banker @banker.bad /lmax.log $" look up bad names in banker.bad,
if match found then IGNORE withdrawal, log good users in max.log.
Refund unused withdrawal, use defaults for "/B" and "/U".
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Just a note about the new "@" option to ignore Withdrawal amounts.
When a user withdraws time from their account, Banker always was and
IS subtracting this amount from their TimeOn Today value. (The only
place this was ever mentioned was in section 2. of the MaxiBank.Hlp
file. I've changed that to say "MAY Reduce ...") I figured that
since the time was probably deposited on some previous day BANKER
should not charge the user for that time today. The result can be
a user logging on, withdrawing the maximum amount, only using the
withdrawal time and logging off. Banker will then reduce their time
of previous calls today to zero. The user can keep calling all day,
repeating this procedure till they have an empty bank account. Sysops
can control this by having small withdrawal amounts and small bank
account limits, but since that requires a real concentrated effort...
Banker can now be instructed NOT to subtract withdrawal amounts
from the user's TimeOn Today value in the User.Bbs file. Banker now
uses 2 methods. A global option and a TEXTfile that lists BadUser
names. One User name per line with no comments. If configured to use
the "@<TextFile>" option, Banker will NOT subtract the withdrawal
amount if the name of the withdrawer is found in the <TextFile>.
The global "@" commandline option causes Banker.Exe to NEVER subtract
any withdrawal amounts fron the user's TimeOn Today. The GLOBAL option
is a little extreme. The TextFile option should be used, it's real
easy to spot a chronic abuser and add their user name (or Alias if
applicable) to a badusers <textfile>. They might get away with it
once, but not twice... You decide if you want to banker to STOP
subtracting withdrawal amounts from your user's timeon today values.
Globably or selectively it's up to you. The default is to subtract
the withdrawal amounts from the TimeOn Today value. If you use this
option then NO logfile entries will be created, because the user's
TimeOn Today value will remain unchanged.
The other new option "$" will refund any time a user may have
withdrawn but did not use. If the user withdraws 30 minutes and
remains online 10 minutes then the remaining 20 minutes will be
returned to their bank account. If you are allowing withdrawal
amounts to reduce the TimeOn Today value then this will work all
day. But since Maximus stores the user's total time on the system
not the amount of time per logon session in the user.bbs file it
would be very unlikely that a user would get any refund if they
did not use all withdrawal time on their second or third call and
you do NOT allow withdrawal amounts to reduce their daily logon
time (TimeOn Today). The default is NOT to refund any unused
withdrawal time. If this option is used then any REFUNDS will be
noted in any "/L<logfile>". If used in conjunction with any
"@<textfile>" options then Banker will also write a log entry
showing the withdrawal amount and the TimeOn Today value. I highly
recommend this option because if Maximus was started with a "-T#"
option restricting the users time because a NON Bbs event is pending
and you do not have a corresponding EVENT in MaxiBank.Cfg, users will
be allowed to withdraw an amount that would be greater than the value
of the "-T#" parameter. Maximus will terminate their online session
when the "-T#" of minutes expires, regardless of the time the user
thinks they have left online. Also if your users lose carrier (for
whatever reasons) I think it is a nice idea to refund them any
excessive withdrawal time.
Banker v1.02 did not have the ability to check for user Alias',
although MaxiBank was capable of using them, oops. Now Banker checks
both the user's name and alias when searching the user.bbs file to
add or subtract time (if applicable) from the User's TimeOn Today.
Banker NEVER alters the first record of User.Bbs, the Sysop's user
record.
Maybe Banker needs it's own BANKER.DOC file? I don't know...
New for MaxiBank.
-----------------
Although it was never stated anywhere, ANSI.SYS or equivalent
must be loaded, MaxiBank does not write directly to the screen.
All colours seen locally are ANSI colours. Maxibank is a MSDOS
program, it is not aware of any multitasking operating systems.
Use at your own risk!
MaxiBank now supports AVATAR colours graphics for remote users.
Maxibank now supports useage of numeric colour codes as well
as ANSI codes in it's COLOUR# statements. Use COLOURS.EXE to
view the various (all 256) ANSI colour codes to select the
numeric colour codes. MaxiBank Converts the colour codes to
ANSI. If MaxiBank cannot convert your ANSI colours to AVATAR
(your users will have to tell you about this since AVATAR codes
are never used locally) then use the numeric codes instead of
your ANSI codes.
I fixed a BUG which would not allow a user with Maximum time
in Maximus set to unlimited (0) to withdraw time. Previously
(in v2.13) if this was set the user could not withdraw anything
ever. Now it is working as designed. NOTE: setting this value
to unlimited allows the user to overrun declared events. After
all, unlimited online time means exactly that, UNLIMITED. I would
suggest you avoid the use of unlimited amounts and instead use
a large amount like 1440. (a whole day of minutes). Unlimited
time in maximus will not allow a user to withdraw time in a
deposit only event, but at any other time an unlimited setting
allows the user to withdraw as much time as they have in their
account. Maximus will still honour any -t<amount> command line
parameter, the user will be disconnected when that amount of
time has elapsed regardless of what time the user has remaining.
Banker can be instructed to refund the unused withdrawal time.
You've been warned.
Added a logfile entry that will inform you if a Deposit_Only event
is underway. Added a logfile entry to show the next EVENT and
maximum withdrawal amount if withdrawal restrictions are in effect.
Also if a user's online time remaining is greater than the time
till the next event MaxiBank will make a note 'Online at EVENT
start?'. This means that the event in question is not a "forced
non BBS event", the kind of event when a Mailer will pass the
exact time remaining till the event to Maximus. This also means
that the user can renter the bank after the event occurs and will
probably be allowed to withdraw time. This is not a BUG, MaxiBank
has no way of forcing events to occur. It can only restrict
withdrawal amounts before an event occurs.
You may now have multiple Deposit_Only events, previously you
could have multiple Deposit_Only events but MaxiBank would always
report to the user the times of the last one found in the .cfg file.
Now it reports the times of the actual Deposit_Only event. You might
use multiple deposit_only events to restrict withdrawls instead of
using non forced EVENTs as described in the above paragraph.
Spiced up the MaxiBank.Hlp file a little bit, in hopes that it
will make operation more understandable. You can edit this file
as you please, try to keep linelengths less than 80 characters.
If you don't allow users to transfer time to others then delete
section 5.
----------------------------------------------------------------
May 17, 1992
MaxiBank now stores the users privilege level in the bank files
Using this information, MaxiBank now will not let users
transfer time to other bank accounts that are FULL, will not
let users overfill others account, and now you cannot overfill
a bank account while in Editor mode.
If you are upgrading from versions prior to v2.13 then
I've included a little program (FIX_PRIV.EXE) that will scan
the bank data file for user names and then get the users'
privilege level from user.bbs. It may be a little slow to
execute if you have lots of bank accounts. Everytime a user
makes a deposit, withdrawal or transfer their privilege level
is updated, and all privilege levels in any old bank data file
are set at disgrace levels. You can run FIX_PRIV or not, it is
up to you. Type FIX_PRIV ? for more instructions. FIX_PRIV will
compare bank file names against both USER.BBS names and alias'
so it should work even if you are using ALIAS names.
payable Interest amounts can now be decimal numbers or fractions,
small numbers like 0.0274 (10/365 = 10% per YEAR) are just as valid
as 2% per day. If you do select a SMALL number then remember to also
raise the number of DaysOfInterest accordingly. If you are only paying
10% per Year then you could allow 365 DaysOfInterest, or more.
April 30, 1992
MaxiBank can now sort a maximum of 2500 bank accounts. Previous
versions had a maximum number of 500. These new sort routines
can be accessed direct from the command line! A new parameter
`/S' (for sort) has been added. You can sort by DATE, NAME
or AMOUNT. Prefixing the option with a minus sign (-) will
sort in the reverse direction. Control returns to DOS after
the sort function finishes. the name of the MaxiBank data file
is obtained from MaxiBank.Cfg (as well as other important
information)
eg. Maxibank /sDATE ---- sort by date (oldest is first)
Maxibank /s-DATE ---- reverse sort (newest is first)
Maxibank /sNAME ---- sort alphabetically by lastname
Maxibank /sAmount ---- sort by amount (largest is first)
Maxibank /s-Amount ---- sort by amount (smallest is first)
these examples assume MaxiBank.Cfg in current directory.
if maxibank.cfg not in current directory then specify where with the
`/c<filename>' parameter.
eg. MaxiBank /cc:\max\maxibank.cfg /sDate
etc...
Note: this sort command line option is not mentioned in the HELP screen
or the MaxiBank.Doc text file :-)
other cosmetic enhancements, nothing major though.
April 26,1992
Added two new command line options, the first allows you to specify
a MaxiLog option ovverride on the command line. `/L<filename>', where
`filename' is the logfile to be updated. The second command line
option is `/D#'. The `/D' means DELETE accounts older than `#' days.
`/D30' would delete inactive accounts older than 30 days. The Maximum
days to be deleted is 9999 days. Same as while in the online editor
PURGE function. The first new command line option must come before the
second if you want to specify a different logfile than any defined
in the Maxibank.Cfg. Control retruns to DOS after execution. Perfect
for routine maintenance in daily run batch files.
examples.
1. Maxibank /D30
delete accounts older than 30 days, report any deletions in any
logfile as declared in the default MaxiBank.Cfg. If none defined
then no record of the deletions will exist. Bank data file name
will be obtained from MaxiBank.Cfg.
2. Maxibank /LBank.Del /D30
delete accounts older than 30 days, use BANK.DEL as MaxiLog file to
record the deletions. MaxiBank.Cfg MaxiLog option is ignored and
Bank data file is obtained from MaxiBank.Cfg.
April 15, 1992
RAFware CBCSystem has shut down it's BBS, and no longer has any network
addresses.
Added a new feature. Users' can transfer time from their accounts to
any other users accounts. A maximum of 60 minutes per day can be
transfered by each user. This can be configured to a a value of
anything between 1 and 60 minutes. It can not be greater than 60.
Improved the logging function. Memory requirements may have increased.
March 5, 1992.
RAFware CBCSystem has a new address, 1:153/703 (also IMExnet 89:683/109)
Operating hours are from 6 p.m. till 8 a.m.
Here we go again, Maximus v2.01wb has been released, Scott Dudley has
'fixed' the time Online Today problem but his method was unexpected
and so MaxiBank is now broken again. There is a new .CFG option (another
KLUDGE) "Version Max2.01". This informs MaxiBank to act is a special
way so as not too confuse Maximus. If you are using v2.01wb (and hopefully
all future versions of Maximus) include the line
Version Max2.01
somewhere in Maxibank.Cfg.
Also added another new .Cfg option, "MAXILOG Filename.Ext", this enables
a logging function. You can use a new command line option "/NL" to shut
off logging when running in local mode. The logfile can be pointed to
your Max.Log if desired. This may not be advisable on Multi-Node systems
with a common CBCS log file. Maxibank will Report who the user is, their
relevant information and any time/byte bank transfers.
see the sample MAXIBANK.CFG for more details on these new .CFG options
and for complete instructions on all .Cfg options.
If you have any problems you can Netmail me at my new location. Please
include an appropriate LOGFILE segment for debugging purposes. Good Luck.
February 13, 1992
Moved from Ottawa, Ontario to Vancouver, B.C.
I am no longer at address 1:163/126, and have not applied for
a new address. Not sure if I will be getting another address
or not. Time will tell.
Added support for users with hotkeys active. Previous versions of
MaxiBank always used hotkey interface, but now users without hotkeys
active will have to press return after making their selections. Lots
of non hotkey users where getting confused by the automatic hotkey
feature. Hotkeys are always active in editor mode.
Moved the sort function to the main editor menu, instead of it's
previous position in the E)dit menu.
Added a few more .CFG options.
MONO will shut off all ANSI colour.
Presently MaxiBank uses only seven ANSI colour codes. You can now
specify your own ANSI colour codes. At present if you specify a
different ANSI colour sequence for one of the defaults, then all
occurences of the old colour will be replaced with your choice.
If this causes weird effects, let me know, and I might be able to
expand the original 7 colour options to as many as are required.