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CalCat! Ver 3.5
By Bart Flentje
May 1 1993
Legal
CalCat! is provided "AS IS" without any warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied as to the merchantability or fitness
of purpose. The risk as to the quality and performance of the
software is the end user's. The Author shall have no liability
or responsibility to the user with respect to the liability, loss
or damage caused or alleged to be caused by this software,
including, but not limited to, any interruption of service, loss
of business or anticipatory profits or consequential damages
resulting from the use of, or the inability to use the software.
The information in this document is subject to change without
notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of the
Author.
Copying and Distribution:
CalCat! is (c) copyrighted 1993, by Bart Flentje. It is also
registered with United States Library of Congress as such. That
means registered versions of CalCat! cannot be copied and/or
distributed without the express written consent of the author.
However, CalCat! can be copied and distributed so long as it is an
unregistered version and is accompanied with the appropriate key
designating it as SHAREWARE. No changes or modifications may be
made without the authors approval. It is also a violation to use
CalCat! past an authorized date unless a new key has been issued
and released by the author. IT IS a violation of Federal COPYRIGHT
Laws to distribute registered versions of this software whether it
be the software itself or a registration key.
Registration:
CalCat! is NOT public domain, it is SHAREWARE. That means that
you have to pay registration fees ($10.00) if you use CalCat! in
any way or form. The registration cost is minimal and considered
to be below market standards. Registration fee will allow the author
to write new and improved versions of CalCat!. Registering your
software will give you limited rights of use with no expiration.
Registering your software also supports all new updates that may
be developed.
Description of files:
- CALCAT.DOC (This documentation)
- CALCATDB.EXE (Holiday database utility)
- CALCAT35.EXE (The CalCat! program file to be run as event)
- CALCAT.BAT (Sample batch file to start CalCat! event)
- CALCAT.INI (Sample .INI file to see format.)
- CALCAT.DAT (Holiday data file. Back this up!)
- RELEASE.DOC (Version release information and history)
- HOLISCRN.ZIP (Archive file containing 242 holiday screens)
- CCCONVRT.EXE (Converts .DAT file to any extension)
What is CalCat! ?
CalCat! is a utility that was originally written for my BBS to
automatically swap in a new HELLOX. screen on holidays, thus
saving me a lot of work. It started out with just half dozen or
so major holidays and has progressed since. Right now, CalCat!
is supplied with a data file that will check for over two hundred
holidays. This data file has the necessary data to place your
holiday screens where you want them regardless of the year. No
more monkeying with date shifting. (e.g. President's Day is the
3rd Monday in February) CalCat! does it for you. Beyond that,
CalCat! also allows you to randomly or sequentially swap in other
screens on non-holiday days! CalCat! is easy to setup and should
be run as an event (preferred) or as postcall.bat by Wildcat!.
How do I install CalCat! ?
There are four basic steps to setup CalCat!
I. Set up your new event directory.
II. Set up .INI file
III. Customize your holiday .DAT file
IV. Set up your event in Wildcat!
I.
A. Create a new directory for CalCat! For better organization,
I create a directory for each event that I run. My CalCat!
event path looks like this: C:\WC30\EVENT3
B. Copy all CalCat! files into your new event directory. That will
include CALCAT35.EXE, CALCAT.INI, CALCAT.DAT, CALCATDB.EXE, and
HOLISCRN.ZIP.
C. Inside my event directory, I have created a sub directory for all
of the holiday screens. This is for purely organizational purposes.
That path looks like such; C:\WC30\EVENT3\SCREENS. Here is where
you have the new option. You can either copy HOLISCRN.ZIP into
this sub directory or you can unzip the contents of HOLISCRN.ZIP
into the sub directory. Which ever way you decide to go, you will
determine that when setting up the .INI file.
Here is an EXAMPLE of how my directory looks...
_______________________________________________
Volume in drive C is MAX1!
Volume Serial Number is 18DB-9CAD
Directory of C:\WC30\EVENT3
. <DIR> 08-28-93 2:07p
.. <DIR> 08-28-93 2:07p
CALCAT DAT 6756 10-31-93 12:01a
CALCATDB EXE 64232 10-18-93 12:00a
CALCAT INI 93 10-31-93 3:00p
CALCAT35 EXE 76162 10-31-93 3:00p
CALCAT BAT 12 10-31-93 3:00p
CALCAT DOC 8138 10-31-93 3:00p
CCCNVRT EXE 56124 05-01-93 12:00a
SCREENS <DIR> 10-31-93 3:00p <- Screens go here.
11 file(s) 151459 bytes
1817217536 bytes free
_______________________________________________
II. Part I is now done. Wasn't that relatively harmless? If you thought
so, I have to apologize for making part II sound way more difficult
that it truly is.
A. Make sure you are now in your new event directory. We'll modify your
.INI file to suit your needs. But before we start, let me tell you
a bit about what it will look like. Below is an example of what the
.INI file should look like. (MINUS THE COMMENTS ON THE RIGHT!)
SYSOP=Bart Flentje <--- Sysops first and last name
BBS=The Bad Place BBS <--- Name of BBS
TargetFile1=HELLO7 <--- Title of Target holiday screen 1
TargetFile2=HELLO8 <--- Title of Target holiday screen 2
TargetFile3=HELLO9 <--- Title of Target holiday screen 3
SourcePath=C:\WC30\EVENT1\SCREENS\ <--- Path of Source Holiday Screens
TargetPath=C:\WC30\DISP\ <--- Path to Display Screens
Last=4 <--- Last screen used sequential swap
Sequence=2 <--- Swap type. 0=off 1=rnd 2=seqtl
ASCII=BBS <--- Postfix for ascii screen type
ANSI=SCR <--- Postfix for ANSI screen type
Key=0000000 <--- Your key here
Archive=HOLISCRN.ZIP <--- Name of ZIP file to use if the
holiday screens are to be left
in archive form to save space.
LEAVE BLANK if screens are to be
stored in UNZIPPED form.
The ini file contains 13 lines. The order of these 13 lines does NOT
matter. However, the SYNTAX MUST BE CORRECT. If you replace my data
with your's leaving everything else the same, you will encounter no
problems. The "Flag" part of each line MUST BE CORRECT in order for
the .INI file to be read in properly. For example, you will notice
where it says 'SYSOP=', this must exist on the line and simply fill
in your information. Leave NO spaces BETWEEN the line 'Flag' and
your data. The line 'Flags' are not case sensitive, however, your
name and BBS name will obviously appear as you type it.
B. The following data will help explain the information needed in the
.INI file. Use your favorite text editor to change anything in the
.INI file.
1. Sysop= This is the first and last name of sysop.
Syntax: Sysop=Bart Flentje
2. BBS= The name of your BBS.
Syntax: BBS=The Bad Place BBS
3. TargetFile1= This is the name of the screen you want to write the
holiday screen to. This can be HELLOX., GOODBYE., or
PRELOG. I Recommend that you use any HELLOX. screen.
Do NOT put postfix or period at the end of this file
name. The file type, whether it be ANSI or attribute,
will be controlled automatically by another function.
You will notice you now have the option for up to three
TargetFiles to be written. You can use either one, two,
or all three TargetFiles. If you choose not to use any
one of them, leave the field empty. (eg TargetFile2=_ )
You must utilize at least one TargetFile or an error
WILL occur.
Syntax: TargetFile1=HELLO7
4. TargetFile2= See example above. Line number 3.
5. TargetFile3= See example above. Line number 3.
6. SourcePath= This is the path where CalCat! will find your holiday
screens. If a holiday file does not exist at this
path, CalCat! will abort it's operation. CalCat! is
NOT sensitive to backslash at the end of the path.
Syntax: SourcePath=C:\WC30\EVENT3\SCEENS
7. TargetPath= This is the path where CalCat! will write your holiday
screen to. This line is more important to your BBS
that it is for CalCat!'s operation, because this is
the path where your BBS should be able to find your
HELLOX screens. Again, CalCat! is NOT sensitive to
the backslash at the end of the path.
Syntax: TargetPath=C:\WC30\DISP
8. Sequence= This field tells CalCat! what type of a swap you want
to use when it is a non-holiday day. There are only
three (3) options here, and they are 0, 1, and 2.
'0' means all swapping on non-holiday day should be
turned OFF. A '1' will allow you to randomly swap a
list of files specified in CALCAT.DAT. A '2' will
allow you to sequentially swap a list a files that
have been specified in CALCAT.DAT. If any other number
or character exists here it will default to '0'.
Syntax: Sequence=1
9. Last= If you chose swap type '2', the sequential swapping,
this line will be written to every time CalCat! is run
keeping track of the last screen swapped. Before you
run CalCat! for the first time, this number can be any
value for it will adjust itself accordingly. This
line MUST exist whether you use sequential or not.
I would recommend that you just put a '1' here and
leave the rest to CalCat!
Syntax: Last=1
10. ASCII= Most BBS packages produced today allow you to use two
sets of screens. These two screens types are usually
ANSI and ASCII, one set allowing for advanced colors
and animation, and the other allows color or black and
white, respectively. CalCat! is now setup to go beyond
Wildcat!'s .BBS and .SCR making CalCat! compatible with
several other packages on the market. In this field,
simply put the ASCII postfix used by your BBS package
here. Again, this line is more important to your BBS
than for the operation of CalCat!. A postfix that is
wrong will cause your BBS to not find your holiday file.
Syntax: ASCII=BBS (note: .BBS is wrong! No dot.)
11. ANSI= As in above, simply put the ANSI postfix used by your
BBS package here. It is not case sensitive.
Syntax: ANSI=SCR (note: .SCR is wrong! No dot.)
12. Key= And lastly, but maybe most importantly, we have our new
key system. CalCat! will not work unless there is a key
entered here. All keys are currently 7 characters in
length and with the exception of registered versions,
the key is date sensitive. So, be sure to enter it here
correctly.
Syntax: Key=XXXXXXX
13. Archive= This is where you specify whether you would like to
store the holiday screens in ZIP archive form or not.
This new line must exist. If you WOULD like to store
holiday screens in archive form, put the name of the
archive file here. The screens included in SHAREWARE
version have been preZipped, so I would recommend that
you just leave the screens as is and put HOLISCRN.ZIP
in this field. If you choose to store the holiday
screens in the extracted form, this line MUST exist but
leave the field blank.
Syntax: Archive=HOLISCRN.ZIP
That should do it for the .INI file, that didn't seem too bad, did it?
III. With CalCat's new database system, it is now easier for you to turn
holidays on and off, or add holidays to the database. I won't go into
too much detail on how to run CALCATDB.EXE because there isn't as much
to it as it may seem. It is just a means to manipulate holidays easier.
Run CALCATDB.EXE and you will encounter the database screen.
A. First of all, anytime you want to leave the program, just hit F1 and
you are out.
B. To go through the holidays one by one, use F2 key to go up and the
F3 key to go down. You will notice once you get to the top it will
wrap back to bottom and the same is true when the bottom is hit.
C. If you'd like to add a holiday, hit the F4 key:
1. First enter a name to give holiday in the database.
2. Next you will be asked to give title of the screen file.
The syntax must follow MS DOS proper file name syntax. That
means the file name cannot exceed 8 characters and if it has a
dot postfix at the end, (e.g. .BBS) it cannot exceed 4 characters.
Any name not entered properly will be refused by database out.
3. The next question asked is whether or not your holiday should be
turned on or off. Answer according to your preference. Any
holiday added to the database does not have to be used.
4. Now you will be asked what type of holiday you are adding. You
will have the choice of '1', '2', and '4'. ('3' is reserved for
author use.) If you are entering a holiday that falls on the same
day every year, use selection 1 and answer the questions given
such as the month and day. If you are adding a holiday that shifts
from year to year such as Memorial Day or Labor Day, use selection
'2' and answer the prompted questions accordingly. The selection
you will use the most often will probably be selection '4'. Use
this to enter in your screens to swap in on non-holiday days.
D. To delete a holiday from the database, use the F5 key. Please note
that any holidays supplied by the author cannot and SHOULD NOT be
altered in any way or form. All author supplied holidays can be
turned on and off, but all other information pertaining to the
holiday is locked from being erased or changed.
E. If you know a particular record number that you'd like to jump to
in the database bypassing all others, use the F6 key to jump to that
record number.
F. If you know the name of a particular holiday that you'd like to jump
to bypassing all others, use the F7 key to do a search.
G. Pressing any of the keys 1-5 will allow you to edit your record
information. Note you are only allowed to edit holidays that you
yourself have entered.
1. Change the name of the holiday in the database.
2. Change the title of the holiday screen.
3. ** Reserved for author use **
4. Use this to toggle your holidays on and off.
5. Use this to edit the type of holiday.
** Well that should do it. You know the basics for holiday house
keeping.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
To get a list of holidays sorted by date and/or name,
run CalCat34.EXE with the switch -LIST.
Syntax: CALCAT35 -LIST
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IV. Set up event in SYSOP menu area of Wildcat! BBS using the
CALCAT.BAT sample file. Run once per day preferably at say
12:01 A.M. Once installed properly, event only takes
approximately 5 seconds to run so will not interfere with incoming
calls.
That should do it. CalCat! is now ready to be run. You can run it outside
of Wildcat! obviously if you'd like to see it run. Not much to see though
until you log onto your BBS system.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REMEMBER................
I have supplied ANSI and attribute screens for the 242+ holidays that
are already installed in the CALCAT.DAT file. Please cut me some slack
on these screens. Some of them are from other authors and some of them
are made by me. Every attempt has been made to retain the original work
by other authors and by also leaving their mark, (name) on their work. I
respect the hard work and creativity by these people, and I hope you also
appreciate them. ANSI authors make your life easier!!
****** Read on....
And by all means I cannot and will not guarantee that any of these
screens are setup with the proper amount of line lengths. I tried
with the version 2 series and it turned out to be too much work for
one person to do. (Especially as a student.)
So, if you get a chance to get a nice set of custom holiday screens,
please circulate them around the BBS world, especially at MSI HQS so I
can get a hold of them.
Enjoy CalCat! and if you have any problems or suggestions for improvements,
please feel free to contact me, Bart Flentje, on the MSI HQS BBS or you can
write to me at: or voice phoned at:
Bart Flentje 612-686-6276
1718 Hickory Hill
Eagan, MN 55122
Thanks for the support!