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Text File | 1993-01-01 | 28KB | 624 lines

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Silver Xpress Off-Line Mail System │ │ Version 3.02 │ │ (c) copyright 1988-1992 by Santronics Software │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ NOTE: AS OF JANUARY 18, 1993 WE WILL HAD MOVED TO OUR NEW LOCATION │ │ IN SOUTH FLORIDA. "WE ARE TRADING SNOW FOR BUGS!" IF YOU PLAN TO │ │ REGISTER, PLEASE READ THE ORDER.TXT FILE ABOUT OUR NEW ADDRESS AND │ │ TELEPHONE NUMBERS. │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Welcome! You have taken the first step to using the most powerful and flexible off-line mail system! Thousands of users world wide are using the Silver Xpress Mail System. Now, you will see why! Version 3.02 is the 2nd maintenance release over version 3.00 released on April 9, 1992. It is a FREE version to all 3.0x registered users of Silver Xpress. If you are 3.0x registered user of Xpress, you may skip this file and read the WHATSNEW.302 file. As a veteran user of Silver Xpress, we provided a Summary Section in the WHATSNEW.302 file. Please be aware of the system file changes. This README.302 file is an abbreviated documentation for the Silver Xpress Reader. Silver Xpress has an extensive hypertext on-line help system which will more than suffice to help you explore the new features in Silver Xpress. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ Full documentation and a bound manual is provided with the normal │ │ registration price of $57.50. $45.00 just for the registration │ │ code without the manual. (Upgrade $27.50 and $15.00 respectively) │ └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Support for this package is available several ways: 1) All customers can use the Silver Xpress International XPRESS USER mail conference for questions and comments. Ask your local remote host sysop for its availability. You may also call the Santronics Software Xpress Support Remote Host BBS Center and leave a electronic message with your questions or comment. A reply will be available with 48 hours. All patches, minor upgrades and other files will be available on this Remote Host. 2) Customers who are unregistered can use voice support for questions and comments. 3) Version 3.0x registered customers can call 800-845-6944 (EST 9am-9pm). 1 hour total limit of free support is allowed. Have your reader registration number ready. Unregistered customers may call this number if they are going to purchase or upgrade version 3.0x. ┌──────────────┐ │HOW TO UPGRADE│ └──────────────┘ 1) Customers who registered Silver Xpress version 2.2x after 3/1/91 and before 4/31/92 are eligible for a free version to Silver Xpress version 3.0x. To receive your free registration code, please fill out the order form (in ORDER.TXT), or you may call our voice support line. Make sure your registration code is provided. No new codes will be provided without one. 2) Customers who registered prior to 3/1/91 can upgrade by using filling out the order form, or call 800-845-6944 for credit card orders. The basic charge is $15.00 or $27.50 with documentation plus shipping and handling. ┌─────┐ │FILES│ └─────┘ This is the list of files you should expect in this package: README.302 - This file INSTALL.EXE - Installation program. INSTALL.DAT - Installation program data file DISK.DAT - Installation program data file PREINST.BAT - Installation program data file SILVER.ZIP - Main Silver Xpress Zip FIle XPREAD.EXE - New Silver Xpress Version 3.02 XPREAD.OVR - Overlay File. Must be together with XPREAD.EXE SXMENU.LIB - Default pull down menu for XPREAD.EXE WELCOME.OPX - Sample Silver Xpress OPX mail for demonstration 228MENU.LIB - Example customized menu for XPREAD.EXE WHATSNEW.300 - Listing of whats new in Silver Xpress V3.00 WHATSNEW.301 - Listing of whats new in Silver Xpress V3.01 WHATSNEW.302 - Listing of whats new in Silver Xpress V3.02 LICENSE.TXT - License and copyright information. ORDER.TXT - Order Form XPLANG.DEF - Language file (NOTE: FILE NAME CHANGE) ARCHIVER.DEF - Archiver Definition File XPREAD.HLP - Hypertext Help file for Silver Xpress XPREAD.CLR - default color file BW.CLR - black and white color file CHARLIE.CLR - Charlie Smith's Black and White Color File COLOR.CLR - CGA color file MONO.CLR - Monchrome Color File CHINESE.CLR - Chinese Color File with no desktop character XPREAD.SFI - Speech Friendly Interface Configurable Strings. SFI.DOC - Documentation on Speech Friendly Interface. PICKLIST.LIS - Pick List of all the list files in the system. ALIAS.LIS - Alias Pick List USER.LIS - Addressee Pick List SIGN.LIS - Signature Pick List TAGS.LIS - Tag line Pick List SUBJECT.LIS - Subject Line Pick List IMPORT.LIS - Import File Pick List NETFLAGS.LIS - Netmail attribute pick list MATRIX.LIS - Pick list for netmail matrix numbers CABINET.LIS - Pick list for file cabinet names FAXPHONE.LIS - Pick list for common fax phone numbers. FAXFILES.LIS - pick list for common fax files. FAXCOVER.LIS - Pick list for fax cover files. PRINT.LIS - Print device pick list MAILPROC.LIS - Pick list for mail processor STOLEN.LIS - Template pick list for stolen tag lines MORETAGS.LIS - More tag lines WINDOWS.LIS - More tag lines IHATEBW.LIS - More tag lines If you have anything different or missing, please contact us and inform us of any discrepancy. We want to ensure that your copy of Silver Xpress is not maliciously manipulated in any way. Silver Xpress was checked for viruses before and after the packaging process. ┌───────────────┐ │BONUS PROGRAMS │ └───────────────┘ If you are receiving a registered Silver Xpress Diskette, then the diskette will have a BONUS directory. In the BONUS directory, you should find: SXCOLOR.ZIP - Xpress Reader Color Customization Program SXDM100.ZIP - Xpress Reader Menu Customization Program DTREE421.ZIP - Simple directory display program SPOT213.ZIP - Super fast Seek and Act File Search System SXM105.ZIP - New Silver Xpress Hard Disk Menu System XPRNAMER.ZIP - Xpress Packet Rename Utility by Fred Merrick These programs are value at over $80.00 plus dollars. They are yours free of charge with your full purchase and registration of the Silver Xpress Off-line Mail Reader. ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS │ │ │ │ o IBM PC or clone │ │ o DUAL FLOPPY with minimum of 720K Each │ │ o IBM DOS or MS DOS 3.1 or better │ │ o 640K Ram Memory │ │ o Monochrome/Color Monitor │ │ │ │ IDEAL SETUP │ │ │ │ o IBM DOS or MS DOS 3.1 or better │ │ o CGA Monitor or better │ │ o Hard disk with 2-5 megs of Free space │ │ o 640K Ram Memory with 2K or more of Expanded/Extended memory │ │ o Silver Xpress located on the DOS PATH statement │ │ o A INTEL Model 400 FAX/Modem for Faxing and V32 communications│ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘ ┌────────────┐ │INSTALLATION│ └────────────┘ BBS SHAREWARE VERSION: TYPE PKUNZIP SXR302, THEN INSTALL (You did this already if you are reading this) DISKETTE VERSION : TYPE A:INSTALL.EXE. (You did this already if you are reading this) EXPERIENCED USERS: If you are already using Silver Xpress version 2.28 or below, we suggest to backup your copy, DELETE THE OLD XPREAD.EXE, and then install the new system. If you are already using Silver Xpress version 3.01 or below, you can simply install over the top of the previous 3.0x version. However as a precaution, we suggest you first make a backup. This is the best way to get the most out of Silver Xpress. NEW USERS: To make Silver Xpress work the FIRST TIME, there is ONLY one thing you need to know: Xpress uses 3rd party programs to compress and decompress information (mail). It must be able to find them. You can put them in the same directory as Xpress or they must be in the PATH. By running the installation program, it will check to see if 3rd party utilties can be found. HARD DISK USERS: As an example we will use "C:\XPRESS" as your Silver Xpress directory. Make the proper subsitution for your setup. 1) Create A directory Called C:\XPRESS 2) Expand the Silver Xpress files into this directory. 3) Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and add the following to your PATH statement: PATH C:\XPRESS;....plus what was here before..... 4) Reboot the machine To start Silver Xpress, change directory to C:\XPRESS and type XPREAD FLOPPY DISK USERS: If you only have a single 5.25 360K floppy you will not be able to maximize your use of Silver Xpress. Although, it is quite possible to make Silver Xpress work with a 360K floppy system, we do not recommend it and therefore will not spend any more time on it. Silver Xpress can work on a floppy disk with 720K at a minimum but you will be pushing it. The upmost requirement is that the COMSPEC for DOS is located on the same drive as Silver Xpress. This means, Silver Xpress should be on a Bootable Diskette. See your DOS manual to make a BOOT diskette. The second requirement is that you should have a second drive, it can be another floppy or ram drive. The following is the minimum list of files required: XPREAD.EXE XPREAD.OVR SXMENU.LIB XPREAD.HLP (Not required if registered) XPREAD.CLR (only available after you start Xpress) XPREAD.CFG (only available after you start Xpress) These files add up to approximately 355K. All other files found in the package are not required but you will have features available to you like pick list files. Put this files in the BOOT Diskette. Create a CONFIG.SYS file for the BOOT Diskette and put the following lines in it. FILES=20 BUFFERS=8 Create a AUTOEXEC.BAT file for BOOT Diskette and put the following lines in it. @ECHO OFF PATH A:\ SET COMSPEC=A:\ SET XOL=A:\ A:\XPREAD.EXE -MB:\ -RB:\ -WB:\ Format a second diskette on drive B, and label this diskette as your MAIL DISKETTE. At this point, you should be all set up. If you have any problems, call Silver Xpress Technical support at 412-864-2060 9am-5pm EST ┌─────────────────────────────┐ │NEW FEATURES IN SILVER XPRESS│ └─────────────────────────────┘ INTERACTIVE HYPERTEXT HELP: You will find the Silver Xpress hypertext help system to be very useful. Everything in Silver Xpress is explained, except where detailed information is required. Some of the details are explained here, but to get the most of Silver Xpress, you will need the full documentation. Just hit F1 where ever you need help. Use the ALT-F1 key to browse backwards in the help system. QWK SUPPORT: Silver Xpress will now support QWK mail files. This allows you to benefit from the power of Silver Xpress for QWK mail systems. If you want to support QWK, make sure you define the packet specification to include the *.Q?? file specification. The default specification is *.Q?? *.O?? EXEC SWAPPING (REAL MODE ONLY. NOT REQUIRED IN PROTECTED MODE) Silver Xpress will utilize as much memory as required to successfully negotiate a mail session. Whenever a DOS operation is performed from Silver Xpress, it is quite possible to RUN OUT OF MEMORY, thus causing the DOS operation to be unsuccessful. When this situation occurs, you can use the built-in EXEC SWAPPING feature of Silver Xpress to free up memory prior to calling the DOS operation. If you insert certain prefixes to the command, it will enable certain exec swapping or other operations. Prefix Command none Xpress will use COMMAND.COM. Program must be on the path. ! Direct call to Program. Program must be Fully Qualified $ Exec Swap. Program must be fully qualified # Exec Swap. Xpress will call COMMAND.COM. Program on Path. W Pop up a window and run program using COMMAND.COM. No swapping will be perform so make sure the program has enough memory. Here is the format: W <x1> <y1> <x2> <y2> [command] [parameters] where x1,y1,x2,y2 are window dimensions. see archiver.def for window example with pkzip. (Fully qualified means the complete drive:\path\filename.ext must be included). ARCHIVER DETECTION: Silver Xpress now has the ability to dynamically define up to 20 different archivers. The file ARCHIVER.DEF defines all the archivers currently available. They are pre-defined and should work in all cases. However, they assume the programs are located in a PATHed directory. See how you can optimize the archiver detection system in the OPTIMIZING SILVER XPRESS section. CRASH CALL OPTION: The new Silver Xpress has an option where you can create a file called XPRESS.CLO which is designed to interface with telecommunication such as Gold Xpress or Telix. The XPRESS.CLO has the following format: field1 field2 field3 field4 field5 where field1 telephone number of host to call field2 board id field3 OPX or QWK file name field4 REP file name field5 BIF file name To create this file, use the CALL option off the packet loader. There are several methods to interface the Silver Xpress CRASH CALL option with your telecommunications program. One way is to configure your telecommunications program to call XPREAD.EXE directly. This is the Gold Xpress method. However, if your telecommunications is large, and does not it's own exec swapping logic, you will probably run out of memory to call XPREAD.EXE. Another way is to use a batch file like the one below: -- SX.BAT -- @echo off xpread %1 %2 %3 %4 if not exist c:\telix\xpress.clo goto quit cd \telix telix callxp :quit This batch file assumes TELIX is the telecommunications program, and a TELIX script file callxp is available. SILVER XPRESS FORMS SYSTEM: The Silver Xpress Mail System now implements a powerful forms processing facility. If you are a SYSOP or a system integrator, you will find Silver Xpress Forms System to be a powerful and flexible system to allow for most off-line data entry applications. Since this is SYSOP option, this is documented with the door package. Your sysop may provide a Silver Xpress Order form for his system. This is one way to order system electronically, but more importantly, you will see the power in Silver Xpress Forms System. If you are a professional developer or system integrator, and wish to explore the possibilities Silver Xpress Forms may have for your organization, then download the file FORMTOOL.ZIP from any Xpress Distribution Node. SILVER XPRESS FAXXPRESS SYSTEM: Your Sysop may have implemented a FAX Service. If so, you will see options to allow you to perform fax mail via his system. Talk to your sysop about the possibilities of Fax Mail. MENUS: Silver Xpress now uses a pull down menu system. You can even use a mouse if you have one. The menu may be changed by using the SXDYMENU.EXE program. This program is available as SXDM100.ZIP and can be found on the Xpress Distribution Network. Silver Xpress will always load the menu SXMENU.LIB. You can explore the alternate menu system with the sample 228MENU.LIB by typing: XPREAD -X228MENU.LIB A BBS can also define the menu you will see. If a BBS operator chooses to provide a customized menu with your mail packet, you can not override his customization. By customizing your menus, you can create canned mail options like: "Send Mail to Charlie" "Send Echo Mail Rules for Xpress User Conference" or create menus that read specific areas, like: "Read Netmail Area" "Read Private Conference"" "Read LAN MHS Mail" or create a hard disk menu system, like: "Run Word Perfect" "Call Telix" 43/50 LINE MODE SUPPORT: You can tell Xpress to use 43/50 line mode support. Xpress will adjust it's windows dimensions in most places to take advantage of the added screen space. You can temporarily switch to 43/50 line mode by using the -V50 switch. SPEECH FRIENDLY INTERFACE: If you are visually impair, you will find Silver Xpress to the the best off-line electronic mail system designed to present mail to you in the most friendly and clean spoken manner. Xpress has configurable talking cursors and long strings to control the verbosity of the system. In addition, a first in electronic mail, a talking quoter and talking grammer system. With talking Quoter, mail is presented in a paced fashion. You will hear who said what. With Talking Grammer, you can use the reader cursor to place the cursor anywhere on the message and have it speak to you the next paragraph, sentence or word! Use the -SFI switch the first time you use Silver Xpress to activate the speech friendly interace. CONCEPT QUOTER: Silver Xpress has a new facility to allow you to quote mail on a line by line basis. While you are reading mail, hit the Q key to quote the current line. Continue hitting the Q hit for each line you wish to quote. Xpress will put the quoted lines into a temporary buffer. If you want to add your reply to the lines you just quoted, hit the ALT-Q key. Xpress will take you to the internal editor and put the cursor at the bottom. This new unique feature gives you the ability to quote mail on a concept basis without the need to quote the entire message first. What you end up with is a CLEAN concept by concept quoting system! ANSI MAIL: Silver Xpress now can display ANSI messages. ANSI messages have ANSI escape sequences to create fancy displays. NOTE: If you create ansi mail using TDRAW or a similar program, you must set the save width to 80 or less characters. Otherwise, Xpress will truncate your mail. LIST FILES: The reader has enhanced the list file system. You can hit the F2 key at almost any input file to pop up list of choices that you have created. PICKLIST.LIS - List of all the pick list files. USER.LIS - Displayed at the TO WHOM: ALIAS.LIS - Displayed at the FROM WHOM: IMPORT.LIS - Displayed at IMPORT FILE NAME: SUBJECT.LIS - Displayed at the subject line, NETFLAGS.LIS - Displayed at NetMail Attributes MATRIX.LIS - Displayed at NETMAIL ToWhom or Net Address CABINET.LIS - Displayed at SAVE FILE NAME: SIGN.LIS - Displayed when creating new mail. TAGS.LIS - Displayed when creating new mail. FAXPHONE.LIS - Displayed in the Send Fax File Section. FAXFILES.LIS - Displayed in the Send Fax File Section. FAXCOVER.LIS - Displayed in the Send Fax File Section. PRINT.LIS - Displayed when going to print. MAILPROC.LIS - Displayed when D is hit when reading mail. MORETAGS.LIS - Called from TAGS.LIS WINDOWS.LIS - Called from TAGS.LIS STOLEN.LIS - Called from TAGS.LIS The last three are called from TAGS.LIS with the new "LIST ON LIST" concept. The LIST FILE system now has the ability to pop-up another or alternate list. To activate this feature, you need the keyword %ALTLIST in the file. With this option on, each item which begins with a @ symbol will be viewed as a file to pop-up if selected. In addition, the %ITEM RANDOM keyword was added to the list system. This keyword will random highlight an item when the list first appears. See TAGS.LIS for examples on how these new keywords are implemented. As of version 3.02, you can hit the ALT-P to display the "PICKLIST.LIS" file and edit the pick list files. COMMAND LINE SWITCHES: -Cxxxx Use XXXX configuration file instead of default XPREAD.CFG -Xxxxx Use XXXX menu file instead of default SXMENU.LIB -DV Force Desqvu Mode -V50 Force 43/50 video line mode -Wxxxx Change the default work directory -Mxxxx Change the inbound mailbox directory -Rxxxx Change the outbound replybox directory -O Do not do any archiving. It was done outside. XXXXXX is required. But xxxxx should be the file name of the OPX file. Xpress will only use this to get the Xpress file name. Note. HLD and BIF files are created in the path specify by XXXXX otherwise they are created in the work directory. It is your responsibility if you go this route to take this into account. -TTOff Turn off Ticker Tape (registered user only) -S Go directly to the configuration menu. -SFI Enable the Speech Friendly Interface System. -Lxxxx Directly load the file (xxxx is the file spec) /CHIN Use Normal Ascii characters for drawing boxes /VI Special switch to make certain items more "wordy" /MOFF Force the mouse support OFF /E3=XX Switch for people (chinese language) who want to change the default QWK message delimiter. XX is a HEX number. " ┌────────────────────────┐ │OPTIMIZING SILVER XPRESS│ └────────────────────────┘ There are several things you can do to speed up Silver Xpress. 1) If you predominately use a single archiver like PKZIP/PKUNZIP or ARJ and anything else, then I recommend you edit the Archiver Information and hard code full paths for the archiver. For example, USE ARCHIVER DETECTION: NO USE PACKET DETECTION : NO EXPANSION : $C:\UTILITY\PKUNZIP.EXE -O %1 COMPRESSION : $C:\UTILITY\PKZIP.EXE -M %1 The same holds true for your external editor and any other 3rd party program you define within Silver Xpress. In other words, "Being Specific is Terrific" for faster operations. When you do this, you can also diable "CHECK PROGRAM EXISTENCE" in your miscellaneous variable section. 2) If you have plenty of RAM memory, above 280K after you start Xpress, then it's probably not necessary to use the EXEC SWAP symbols $ or #. 3) If you want to use a RAM drive and have plenty of space for it (1MEG recommended), then you can put your work directory here. Keep in mind that you are vulnerable to loss of reply mail if a accident boot is necessary. 4) To reduce memory requirements, one thing you can do is redesign the pull down menu. A external program called SXDYMENU.EXE is available as a separate package to allow you to customize your menus. A sample menu 228MENU.LIB is provided with reduce menu options. By removing the customize color options and some of the other options, you can drastically add more memory to Silver Xpress. 5) Silver Xpress uses an OVERLAY system, XPREAD.OVR. If you don't have extended memory but do have a RAM drive, you can do the following to speed up the loading of the overlay system: a) Copy your XPREAD.OVR over to the RAM Drive, say F:\ b) Define the following environment string, SET XOL=F:\ Another way is to copy the XPREAD.EXE over to the ram drive as well. Silver Xpress will first look for XOL and if not found, look for the XPREAD.OVR file in the same directory as XPREAD.EXE. 6) If you find Silver Xpress EXEC SWAPPING taken a bit too long, this is probably it is SWAPPING to DISK rather than EXPANDED memory. If you have a RAM drive, you can tell XPRESS where to SWAP it's files by setting the environment string, SET XESP=F:\XPREAD.SW$ You must give it a full file path and name. 7) Single mail system users like QWK or OPX only users, can speed up the packet search system by changing the packet specification. Remember, "Being Specific is Terrific".