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1992-07-01
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┬ ┌┐ ┌──┬┐
The ultimate tool for unattended └──┤│ ┌┬─┴┘
BBS communications. └┘o└┴──┘
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
*** Notes for Upgraders *** July 1, 1992
──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
-------------------------
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
-------------------------
1) Unzip the ROBO42-U.ZIP file into your existing Robocomm
directory. Unless you have customized your script files, you
may safely over-write any file when prompted by PKUNZIP.
2) Change into your Robocomm directory, and run the upgrade program
by typing ROBO42UP.EXE at the DOS prompt.
3) Robocomm 4.2 supports the automatic insertion of imbedded
description files from downloaded archives. If you have not
modified the TESTFILE.BAT or FIXFILE.BAT files that came with
previous versions of Robocomm, then you should issue the
following commands at the DOS prompt:
DEL FIXFILE.BAT
DEL TESTFILE.BAT
REN FIXFILE.NEW FIXFILE.BAT
REN TESTFILE.NEW TESTFILE.BAT
If you have modified the TESTFILE or FIXFILE batch files, then
review the corresponding .NEW file to see how support for
imbedded descriptions is implemented.
4) Start Robocomm. The program will detect that some of your data
files need to be updated and will start a one time re-build
process.
5) Once the upgrade has successfully completed, you may delete
ROBO42UP.EXE and I_BBS.DBF (if it exists). These files are no
longer needed.
6) Review the remainder of this file to see the new features
implemented in this release. Please note that some small
anomaly "fixes" were made to this version, but they are not
listed in this file. Take special note of the "Memory
Management Changes" section of this file. In an effort to
improve the default compatibility of Robocomm with the wide
variety of operating environments currently in use, the settings
are now more conservative by default. If version 4.2 seems
somewhat slower (it's not) then you may need to customize the
memory settings.
Have fun!
-------------------------
Wildcat! Specific Changes
-------------------------
o Full Wildcat 3.5 compatibility has been added. To enable this,
you must select "Wildcat 3.5" from the pop-up "BBS Type" menu on
the Directory-BBS screen and reset the prompts using the
"Default" option on the prompt definition screens for the
desired systems. It's *essential* that the prompts and BBS type
are set properly for correct operation on Wildcat 3.5 systems.
o Added full support for all 8 international date formats
supported by Wildcat. Use the "Default Date Format" option on
the general configuration screen to set the format that will be
used to display and get all dates throughout the program and use
the "Date Format" option on the individual BBS screens to
control the date format that is used when scanning file lists
and interacting with the BBS.
NOTE: If you set a "Default" date format, you must use that
format when specifying an agenda start date on the command line.
International Customers: Please accept my apologies for not
realizing that this would be a problem. All of the program's
features should now function appropriately if the correct date
format is set. - Dan
o Changed default prompts for Wildcat systems to Wildcat 3.5.
Renamed the old DEFAULT.WPF file to WC30-32.WPF, which now
contains the correct prompts for Wildcat 3.0, 3.01 and 3.02
systems.
o Changed the default Wildcat Mail door command assigned when
adding new systems to "T" for Wildcat 3.5 compatibility.
o Modified the NEWFILES.DAT parsing routines to filter out any
ANSI codes when processing a QWK packet that came from a Tomcat
3.5 door. You will see the contents of the NEWFILES.DAT in the
terminal window while the list is being processed. Please do
not be alarmed. You are not connected to the BBS during this
process.
o Added code to allow Robo to navigate directly to the TomCat door
during logon on Wildcat 3.5 systems. To enable this support,
you must make sure that the BBS type is set to "Wildcat 3.5" and
that the 1st scheduled item on the agenda is a "Get Mail" or
"Send Mail" item. Robo will preface your login name with a "!"
to indicate its desire to access the TomCat mail door directly.
NOTE: The sysop must enable this "Fast Logon" capability for
your security level. If you see Robo sending the "!" character
at the front of your name, but you still end up at the main
menu, then you don't have access to this feature.
-------------------
Script File Changes
-------------------
o This release contains an updated VAMPIRE.RS script file. If you
have experienced a problem with this script when run from within
a PCBoard conference, then please re-create the associated
agenda items and make sure to specify the desired conference as
a number, and not as a name.
o Created QWKMAIL.RS, a script offering an alternative to the Get
and Send Mail agenda items. This script allows you to define an
alternate ID for the QWK ID, enabling sysops who make mail runs
to a BBS under two names or His/Hers installations to run
without needing to make two Robocomm installations. Also, can
be configured to keep a separate log of the mail run, and can be
set to hang up after sending the REP packet.
o Created KEYWORDS.RS which can be used to automatically upload a
keyword file to a Qmail 4.0 door before your mail downloads.
See the comments in the script file for usage instructions.
o Created MEGAMAIL.RS - An easy to use script to do a MegaMail
mail run using the internal protocols. For MegaMail runs, this
script should be used as a replacement to PCBoard's "M" agenda
item.
o Created WCRELAY.RS - To perform a Wildcat! PCRelay mail run.
o Updated the previously released RPT_SCAN.RS to enable Robocomm
to process the files listed in the first QWK packet downloaded.
o Updated the VAMPIRE.RS script to make it clear that you must use
a conference number, not name, if you run this script and wat to
specify a conference.
---------------
General Changes
---------------
o Added support for a 57600 bps DTE link.
o Modified the code to close all data files before calling the
configured mail reader. This should reduce file handle
availability problems.
o Added FILE_ID.DIZ and DESC.SDI support. This beta comes with
new versions of two popular batch files: FIXFILE.BAT (supplied
as FIXFILE.NEW) and TESTFILE.BAT (supplied as TESTFILE.NEW).
Basically, what happens is that Robocomm deletes any FILE_ID.DIZ
and DESC.SDI files that may exist in the Robocomm directory
before calling either of these batch files. After calling the
batch files, when control returns to Robocomm, Robo first looks
for FILE_ID.DIZ then DESC.SDI in the Robocomm directory. If it
finds either file, then it will be imported into the appropriate
Downloaded Files database entry.
NOTE: To enable this feature, you must either look into
TESTFILE.NEW and FIXFILE.NEW to see how the appropriate files
are moved into the Robocomm directory and implement the
technique in your customized batch files, or you must rename the
.NEW files to .BAT files and use them.
o Modified file download routines to automatically override the
configured file download protocol and use GIFDOWN.BAT when
downloading a GIF file. If GIFDOWN.BAT is not found in the
Robocomm directory, then Robocomm will use the configured
protocol.
o Added the environment variable ROBODIR to the set of variables
created when Robo shells out to DOS for outside functions. The
variable will contain the complete drive and path to the
Robocomm home directory. (Used in the TESTFILE and FIXFILE
routines)
o Changed external protocol transfer routines to create the
Robocomm environment variables when shelling out to external
protocols. To refresh your memory, they are: ROBODIR, BBS,
BAUD, DOW, MAILUP, MAILDOWN, FILEUP, FILEDOWN. This should be
sufficient for intrepid individuals to create batch files for
bi-directional HS/Link mail transfers.
o Added a 2 second delay after connecting at 9600 bps or above.
This may help modems that can't handle outgoing characters
immediately after sending the CONNECT result.
o Improved performance of interactive terminal mode capturing to
text files.
o Added the ability to Exit to DOS on agenda completion when
starting an agenda via GO NOW or GO LATER in interactive mode.
This should be helpful to people running under Windows, DesqView
or OS/2 who don't want Robocomm to use up processor time when
sitting idle after an agenda run.
o Robocomm will now exit with an ERRORLEVEL 1 if it is started
from a command line switch and, after attempting the specified
agenda, it contains any items marked with "!" (attempted, but
not completed).
o Robocomm will now exit with an ERRORLEVEL 2 if it is started via
command line switches and the specified agenda contains any
items which were not attempted. This condition takes precedence
over ERRORLEVEL 1 discussed above. Therefore, if the specified
agenda contains both incomplete (!) and unattempted (■) agenda
items, then Robocomm sets ERRORLEVEL 2.
o Added new command line switch that will "reset" only those items
in an agenda that were marked with an exclamation point. If the
agenda item had permanent status, it will be reset to ToDo
status. If it was a temporary agenda item it is deleted from
the agenda. After resetting, the program quits back to DOS.
For example:
ROBOCOMM /!G1MAIL
Would re-set all incomplete items in the G1MAIL agenda.
-------------------------
Memory Management Changes
-------------------------
o Reduced the conventional memory requirement by 14K.
o *IMPORTANT* Disabled default support for EMS overlay caching.
This means that the program will not do any overlay caching,
unless you specifically specify a /CX or /CE command in your
ROBO environment variable. To do this, make sure your ROBO
environment variable is in the following form:
For EMS overlay caching:
SET ROBO=/CE200,0;<other commands>
For XMS overlay caching:
SET ROBO=/CX200,0;<other commands>
If this version seems "slower" than the 4.1 release, you
probably are missing the speed increase gained by the overlay
caching. Add one of the above to your ROBO variable and you'll
be back up to speed.
o Changed POSTAGEN.BAT processing to free up as much memory as
possible. Also, for your use in the batch file, an AGENDA
environment variable is set which contains the name of the agenda
that is currently being processed. This should enable people
who want to do things such as message extracting/importing in
their POSTAGEN.BAT file to do so without difficulty.
-----------------------------
Changes of Interest to Sysops
-----------------------------
o Added an "Incoming call warning file" option to the
communications configuration screen. If you place a valid file
name into this option, Robo will do the following whenever it
gets a NO DIAL message from the modem:
Pause 2 seconds
Send ATA<cr> to the modem.
Send A message indicating that Robocomm is answering the call
Pause 2 seconds
Send contents of the specified warning file to the caller.
(This must be accomplished within 60 seconds)
Wait 2 seconds
Drop DTR (to hang up)
Wait 1.5 seconds
Raise DTR
Go on to next dialing attempt.
o Released a new version of REXCLUDE, which will allow you too
scan in the contents of a standard PCBoard format DIR file.
Rexclude is available in a separate file called REXCLD11.ZIP
-----------------------
Script Language Changes
-----------------------
o Enhanced the TERMINAL script command. The new syntax is:
TERMINAL [NOKEY] [EXITON "<text>"] [DOORWAY]
All parameters are optional. Their purposes are:
NOKEY - Bypasses the alarm and the necessity to press a key
after jumping to terminal.
NOTE: The terminal mode "alarm" is actually a 60
second timer that will enable Robocomm to recover if
no one is around to interact with the terminal.
Using the NOKEY clauses disables this alarm, so
Robocomm will jump to terminal mode and will not go
back to automated processing until the user presses
Alt-X or when the EXITON text is seen. (See below)
EXITON - This command allows you to specify a text string
that Robocomm will watch for whenever it is in
terminal mode. If Robocomm encounters the specified
text it will immediately exit the terminal mode and
resume script processing.
DOORWAY - This command causes the terminal to start with
"Doorway" mode turned on.
NOTE: You will need to Press [Alt =] to turn doorway
mode off before you can exit with Alt-X.
Examples:
TERMINAL
Goes into standard terminal mode, sounds alarm.
TERMINAL NOKEY
Goes into standard terminal with no alarm or keypress.
TERMINAL DOORWAY
Goes into Doorway mode terminal, sounds alarm.
TERMINAL EXITON "<EXIT>"
Goes into terminal. Automatically exits on <EXIT>.
TERMINAL NOKEY DOORWAY EXITON "<EXIT>"
You get the idea...
o Added a script debugging feature. You may now press Alt-S
whenever Robocomm is processing a WAITFOR command, and Robocomm
will insert a list of all text that is currently being checked
for in the VERBOSE mode log. IF you find your script hanging,
press Alt-S and then review the contents of the log at the point
the hang occurred for clues.
# # #