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- This is BBStevie, an adaptation of the Stevie editor.
- (based on the 3.69a sources)
-
- Current version is BBStevie 3.0
-
- Why BBStevie?
-
- When I began running a Waffle system, a couple of years ago, my
- users wanted a full-screen editor. I played about with some that
- were available, but a couple of Unix-bred users kept after me to
- offer vi. I had obtained and compiled Stevie, but was concerned
- about security problems. Simply not informing users of the shell
- potential wasn't enough, so I set about installing a restricted-user
- mode.
-
- The initial version was just used on my system, but after I
- mentioned the existance of a restricted vi clone, I received a
- number of requests for the code. Thus, BBStevie 1.0 was born.
-
- Since then, many people have offered sugestions and identified bugs
- in BBStevie (and the underlying Stevie). BBStevie has grown to
- accomodate many of the ideas I've received.
-
- Certainly, vi isn't the friendliest editor available, but BBStevie
- is a neat addition to the system that wants to have everything
- available for its users. (the Stevie help screens... well, they
- help :-) I like it just for the regexp search/replace.
-
- What's new? (3.0)
-
- BBStevie will now take advantage of a FOSSIL driver to handle its
- own modem i/o. For Waffle BBS systems, use these commands in your
- _editors file:
-
- restricted mode: (broken for clarity... put it all on one line)
- bfstevie /access=3 /local /screen
- /command="c:\tools\stevie -f%d ! c:\user\%A %i"
-
- administrator's (unrestricted) mode:
- fstevie /access=3 /local /screen /command="c:\tools\stevie -f%d %i"
-
- Local logins will be detected, and the FOSSIL won't be called on a
- local, so this will work well with 1.64 and below. For 1.65, set
- BBStevie up as your remote editor, and use your favorite local
- editor for console logins. (from the 'admin t' menu).
-
- A vi reference file has been added to the distribution.
-
- What's new? (2.3)
-
- A pointer bug that blew up on big iron has been fixed. Wrapmargin
- now handles punctuation sanely when in using modern wrapmargin mode.
- The init file is called '.exrc' on non-DOS systems.
-
- What's new? (2.2)
-
- Another, somewhat obscure, security hole has been closed. No
- further shell access is available to restricted users. A
- potentially abusable feature of reading in files under restricted
- mode is no longer available.
-
- What's new? (2.1)
-
- Wrapmargin has been fixed to accomodate tabs and autoindent.
-
- The BBStevie identifier no longer sleeps for 2 seconds.
-
- This is the last time you'll need to apply the diffs to virgin 3.69a
- code, I promise! 2.1 has been frozen and archived, so any further
- improvements will be an incremental diff.
-
- The Stevie code has been massaged a bit to compile under Turbo C++
- 1.01. No C++ code, though... it's compiling under the ANSI C
- compiler.
-
- What's new? (2.0)
-
- A BBStevie identifier at start up has been added, to help keep
- distribution versions straight.
-
- The underlying Stevie version number is incremented to 3.70, to
- reflect the major changes in this version.
-
- Wrapmargin in 2 styles has been added. 'Classic vi' style, where
- the line wraps at the first bit of whitespace after the margin has
- been crossed, and 'modern', where wrapping happens at the last bit
- of whitespace _before_ the wrapmargin. Modern style is more like
- conventional editors. The 2 versions are selected with the
- 'vi-wrap' settable option. Set 'novw' to select modern wrap.
-
- BBStevie will source a file called 'exrc' from the user's home
- directory, if available. When run unrestricted, it looks for exrc
- first in the current directory, then in the $HOME directory. Exrc
- options override any in the EXINIT environment variable.
-
- A bug in the paragraph-search routine has been fixed. Prviously, if
- the search reached EOF before finding a paragraph break, Stevie
- would lock up.
-
- What's new? (1.5)
-
- Restricted mode has been strengthened. Tags are now disabled for
- restricted users, to avoid clever users' shenanigans.
-
- What's new? (1.0)
-
- BBStevie has a restricted user mode, so it may be offered as a BBS
- editor. To activate the restricted mode, call BBSTevie like this:
-
- bbstevie ! x:\user\dir filename
-
- The '!' command indicates restricted_user mode. The x:\user\dir is a full
- drivename and path to the user's home directory. R_u mode restricts
- a user to reading in files only from his home dir. To disable this
- completely, simply don't specify a path. The filename given will be
- edited, but the user cannot edit alternate files, change the
- filename he is currently editing, or escape to a shell.
-
- Since I designed these changes for my Waffle system, here's the _editors
- entry for BBStevie:
-
- bbstevie /command="c:\tools\bbstevie ! c:\user\%A %i"
-
- Modify the directories to suit your system.
-
- Waffle users will likely have trouble with i/o redirection.
- BBStevie requires NANSI.SYS to properly control the local screen,
- but using an ANSI driver will disable Waffle's i/o handling. For
- this reason, BBStevie is really only useful as a remote editor. The
- local screen will show garbage while it's in use.
-
- One approach has been to configure a batch file that will load
- ANSI.COM, run BBStevie, and then unload ANSI.COM. Some success has
- been reported with using DOORWAY as an i/o redirector.
-
- Bug reports and general commentary should be directed to me,
- <roy%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu>, or to the BBStevie mailing list
- <bbstevie%cybrspc@cs.umn.edu>.
-