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QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation June 1993 Program by : Rod Gasson REYNELLA, South Australia Documentation by: Mark Dowsett SYDNEY, New South Wales (butchered by Rod Gasson) CONTENTS WARNINGS & suggestions .......................................... 1 What do you need QWKRR128 for? .................................. 2 What do you need to use it? ..................................... 2 How do you get the mail packet? ................................. 3 What do you do with the .QWK mail packet? ....................... 3 Unpacking the mail .............................................. 3 Starting QWKRR128 ............................................... 3 Using QWKRR128 .................................................. 4 Opening Menu .................................................... 5 Reading Messages ................................................ 6 Message header information ...................................... 6 READ Commands ................................................... 7 REPLYing to a Message ........................................... 8 The Editors ...................................................... 9 REPLY Commands .................................................. 10 ENTERing a Message .............................................. 12 Entering Netmail ................................................ 12 Using MKQwk or SuperBBS ..................................... 13 Using EzyQwk or Maximus ...................................... 13 Using PCBoard (Cam-mail) ..................................... 13 Using QSO/TBBS ............................................... 13 Auto-netmail .................................................... 14 Packing the mail ................................................ 15 Sending the mail ................................................ 15 Reading what you have written ................................... 15 Options ......................................................... 16 Colours ...................................................... 16 F-Keys ....................................................... 16 Taglines ..................................................... 17 Printer ...................................................... 17 PAL/NTSC ..................................................... 17 DOS support (and command structures)............................. 18 Supporting Programs ............................................. 19 TAGTHIEF .................................................... 19 QPX (unpacker/boot program) ................................ 19 Conference highlighting ....................................... 20 Registration & Distribution ..................................... 22 Files/filenames/filetypes ...................................... 23 Drive usage ..................................................... 24 Contact Addresses ............................................... 24 Glossary ........................................................ 25 Index ........................................................... 26 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation WARNINGS & suggestions ====================== The following items are known or possible traps within QWKRR128 v3. Index files: ----------- - Index files are dependent on the file remaining on the disk for which the index (.NDX) file was written. If you move the .DAT files to another disk the indices are no longer relevant. - Indices from earlier versions of QWKRR128 are NOT compatible with version 3.5. CMD Users notes: --------------- - The *.DAT files must be in a root directory, not in a sub-directory. Other files may be stored in sub-directories. Disk drives: -------------- - You may change any of the disks in any of the drives at any time provided there is no disk activity in progress. It is the user's responsibility to ensure that the correct disks are in the correct drive when required. It is strongly recommended that you do not change the disk in the MESSAGES.DAT or REPLY drives. There is a problem with detecting DISK FULL on floppy systems when saving files as is common with many other programs. This error will cause the program to crash ): File useage and currency: ------------------------ - Each BBS handles it's control.dat file in it's own way. Never attempt to use the control.dat file from one BBS to create a reply packet for another system. - Never use an "old" control.dat file with a newer mail packet. - Avoid uploading any reply packet that was created with a control.dat file more than a few days old. Try to upload your replies preferably the same day but no later than the day after. Mail packet size: ---------------- - When setting up the mail packet you are going to receive consider the drive capacity you have. On average over a large packet 1 message equates to approximately 1.6 blocks of .QWK (.ARC) file and 3.5 blocks of MESSAGES.DAT file when unpacked. This means a 300 message packet will give and .ARC file of 498 blocks which will unpack over 1000 blocks(!) of MESSAGE.DAT plus something like 10 blocks of other files. A 1541 should handle roughly 150 message packets and a 1571 330 message packets but this will leave very little overhead if by some chance they are all large messages. Also if you only have a single drive take into account that will need room on the disk to de-arc the packet and remain within the maximum size of the disk. QWKRR128 v3 requires several blocks free to write its .NDX files (5 bytes per message plus 20 bytes for system pointers). I de-ARC to a hard drive but download to floppy so use a packet size of 600 messages which will fit comfortably on a 1571 disk in compressed form. Number of conferences: --------------------- - There is a physical limit to the number of conference names can be held in memory. In order to avoid lock ups this has been limited to 1024 and if your CONTROL.DAT file holds more than this then only the first 1024 will be displayed. QWKRR128 v3 will handle almost all conference numbers up to 65536, with the exception of conferences numbered 8192 through to 8447. This is due to a quirk in the QWK format Page 1 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation and almost all other QWK readers will have the same problem. If a message that you are reading is outside the 1024 limit it will simply be flagged as an "unknown" conference. You may REPLY to these messages and they will be sent to the correct conference. However you will be unable to SELECT these conferences for reading or entering messages. Note: If the full 1024 conferences are loaded you will only have approx 10k of memory to hold any particular message AND your reply. This memory is rapidly used up so it is suggested that where you have the option you avoid downloading the full conference list with your mail packet. What do you need QWKRR128 for? ============================== QWKRR128 is a 128 Native mode Offline message reader for those BBS mail addicts out there with C128s. It enables the user to read, reply to and originate BBS mail while offline and has a range of features to assist in this process. It has been designed specifically to have no message packet size limitation apart from the disk space available. Why read mail offline? For a couple of possible reasons: 1/ Reduction in 'phone bills for long distance calls as downloading and uploading mail packets is much more time efficient; 2/ Reducing access time on single line BBS' giving other users more chance of getting on or allowing more access to mail areas if you only have a relatively short time available to you on the board. Some SYSOPs allow discounted time rates to Offline mail users as it improves their message base without tying lines up as much; 3/ Reducing the time the computer ties up your 'phone. You can ring someone AND answer your mail at the same time. The most popular reason is probably the first but the others are also useful. What do you need to use it? =========================== You will need an 80 column monitor, C128 and a disk drive (sorry but it won't run in 40 column mode). Any disk drive should work but the larger capacity it has the larger the mail packet you can cope with. The program has been tested with 1571, 1581, CMD Hard and RAMLink drives and will also make use of up to four predefined drives plus any other online drive via DOS commands. QWKRR128 is *NOT* compatible with RAMDOS. You will also need a means of creating and dissolving IBM style archives. The preferred method is to use Chris Smeet's CSX01 program, however Unzip64, BVunzip, CSXARC and LHX are all suitable. QWKRR features its own inbuilt ARC and ZIP packers. These are STORE only, and limited to 60k files (240 disk blocks). If you wish to use a compression packer such as CSARC or LHA you are free to do so. Note: Qwkrr comes with a "boot" program called QPX. This requires the use of CSX01 (not supplied with this package). QPX however does a bit more than unarc your mail and boot QWKRR, it is also used to allow active conference highlighting. (See the section on QPX for more info). As well as QWKRR and a suitable unpacker you also need a QWK format mail packet. (Before you make a wabbit pie you must first catch your wabbit). QWK is one of a number of IBM BBS mail packets and is fairly common with most BBS's. If it is not visible on your BBS ask your SYSOP about it as in can be easily added to most BBS and there are FREEWARE programs available for some IBM BBS's. Page 2 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation How do you get the mail packet? =============================== Log onto your favourite BBS and enter the offline mail reader area. You will need to do a certain amount of setting up in this area setting up at least the following parameters: Packing Option : ARC, ZIP or LZH; (ARC preferred); Packet Type : QWK; Protocol : Select your favourite compatible with your terminal program; Area Selection : Select here the mail areas from which you wish to receive mail. This is often a separate option to the Combined Read option. You will probably find many other options including selection of the number of messages you wish to allow in each packet, inclusion of news bulletins, new files lists and other things. There may be a help file available on the BBS to explain the options and their uses. Once these options have been set to your preference you should then download the mail packet using your favorite transfer protocol. If you don't know how to download then read the docs for your terminal program. The BBS will give you the name of the file to download. What do you do with the .QWK mail packet? ========================================= You should now have a file called <bbs-name>.QWK. This is the same at each download so you will have to delete or rename previous packets before downloading a new one unless your terminal program automatically re-names duplicate downloads. You now have to exit your terminal program and switch to the QWKRR128 v3.5 package of files. Unpacking the mail ------------------ The preferred method of packing /unpacking packets is to use the files included in the QWKRR128 v3.5 set of files. If using a packer rather than ARC or if you wish to use CSDOS' CSARC refer to the revelent CS-DOS docs for additional help. NOTE: if using CSDOS you will need to issue a COLD command before loading QWKRR128 v3.5 due to memory conflictions. Starting QWKRR128 ================= NOTE WELL: If using QWKRR128 v3.5 and wishing to convert it to registered form with information supplied by Rod Gasson for the first time ENSURE you read the instructions on registration later in the documentation before attempting this operation. If you attempt to register it incorrectly disk data can be lost. The instructions that follow will assume you are using the included ARC / deARC functions. Before running QWKRR128 v3.5 obtain the file CSX01 and after extracting it copy the file called CSX128.ML to your QWKRR128 v3.5 disk and then load the program provided called QPX. This program will offer several defaults for the various drives and mail packet filename. The filename at least will be unsuitable so press <N>o and enter your new file name (and/or drives). See the section on QPX for info on how to make *your* preferences as the defaults. One of the options of QPX is MAXIMUS KLUDGE. This has been included because mail packets from these systems can cause CSX01 to abort with an error after extracting the last file in the packet. This has been Page 3 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation known to cause problems to Ramlink oweners, but as a general rule is harmless. It should however be avoided because it can negate the benefits that launching QWKRR from QPX gives, namely the active conference highlighting. Performing this kludge on mail packets that don't need it, or on an already kludged packet will cause no harm. QPX was originally written by Russell Prater and has been modified by Rod to become an integral part of the QWKRR program. Once QPX is configured you are ready to unpack and read/reply to your mail. The mail packet (archive) that you download will contain several files. The only ones of interest are the MESSAGES.DAT and CONTROL.DAT files. There will also be several .NDX files. These are not required by QWKRR however, their existence is checked by QPX and information passed on to QWKRR from them. If using an alternative unpacker please see the section on QPX to decide whether you wish to use the .NDX files. Using QWKRR ----------- If using QPX then QWKRR will load and run with no further input. Otherwise simply load and run QWKRR as you would any other program. QWKRR will then ask for several inputs, namely: Messages Drive - This is where your DAT files are Reply Drive - Where your replies are to be stored. User drive. - This is where all other text input/output is performed. If QWKRR has been launched from QPX these these options are bypassed and those defined by QPX will be used. If you do wish to manually select the drives at this point then define drive #0 as your selection in QPX. Drive selection is via cursor movements. QWKRR will then scan all of your drives (defined or not) looking for a CMD drive with RTC (real time clock). If one is found then this data is extracted and used by QWKRR otherwise you will be prompted to enter this information. The time should be entered in 12 hour format without punctuation, eg 1 pm becomes 0100. Once the actual time is entered you will be asked AM or PM and selecting the first letter will complete the time set. A date is then displayed with a cursor over the left hand end. This date is that found in the CONTROL.DAT file and you can only change the DAY numbers. This should not be a problem as any replies you produce should really be uploaded within a day or two of the download. The exception is if you download a packet on the last day of the month, in this case you might have to put in a false date. The date is not checked in detail for accuracy and things like 30 Feb 93 can be entered although dates greater than 31 cannot be entered. Note that this might cause mail rejection by some Mail doors so it is best to stick to 'legal' dates. There is no edit function available when entering the time and date. Page 4 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Opening Menu ============ Once you have finished the initial set-up the screen frames will be drawn and the data extracted from the CONTROL.DAT file displayed in the main box and either a short menu or a Shareware reminder notice will be displayed depending on the state of registration of the program you are running. If the Shareware message is present pressing any key a few times to step through the messages will bring up the first menu (But you will of course register, won't you!). These options will not necessarily all appear at once as they will only be displayed when you reach a point in the program where they are useable and consist of: E<x>it <R>ead All <M>arked <S>elect Conf. <C>ontinue create ndexes Briefly these options give you the following choices: E<X>it This option gives a short menu after writing message index files to the disk. These indices allow rapid access to specific messages at a later reading session, leaves a bookmark of the last message you read to allow the <C>ontinue option to work and retains <M>arked message information. The EXIT menu consists of: asic ack replies <R>un CSDOS Additional options are SHIFT-P or SHIFT-B which operate as described below. asic : exits the program. If SHIFT-B is used then a cold reset will be performed. ack replies : Packs the reply packet in ARC or ZIP format using the file name provided by the CONTROL.DAT file. If SHIFT-P is used a cold reset will be performed on completion of the packing. The packers included in the QWKRR program are STORE only and limited to a maximum file size of 60 k or 240 disk blocks. <R>un CSDOS : Issues RUN"SHELL" command to the QWKRR boot drive to allow CSDOS to be booted to use compression packers. Back to the Opening Menu options: <R>ead all Starts reading messages from the start of the packet; <M>arked This option will only be displayed initially if an index file has been found for the mail packet created during a previous session or <*>marked during the current session. It lets you read just the <*>marked messages. <S>elect Conf.(erence) (Disabled in unregistered versions). Allows you to choose to read the mail from one specific conference. When this is selected the Conferences available on the BBS will be listed along with a reference number and you will be asked for the number of the conference you want at the end of the list. To escape from this without selecting an area press STOP or enter a blank conference number. If the file has not been indexed there will be a delay while the program searches for the messages from the selected conference. If you select this option it is shown while you are reading messages with a '>' symbol to the left of the word 'Area:' in the message header to remind you that you are locked into this conference. Page 5 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation <C>ontinue Will only be displayed if the message packet has previously been accessed by QWKRR128 v3.5 and an index file has been written. It allows you to continue reading a packet from where you left off. Create ndexes This allows you just to index the message packet without reading it if you so desire. You do not NEED to select it as the index is created progressively as you read through the packet. This option will not be displayed if the whole packet has been indexed. Reading Messages ================ Once you've made a selection from the first menu the first message that matches the selected read criteria in the packet will be displayed with a menu of options shown below it. This menu is: <N>xt rv <A>gn <E>ntr <F>wd <R>ply e<X>prt <O>pts <*> <Msg#> <@> <S> <$> <#> <Q> Some keys are useable that are not shown on the menu. These are; the Escape key (far left top of your keyboard - hereafter referred to as ESC) which aborts reading a message; and <SPACE> or <RETURN> which will move to the next message IN THE SELECTED READING DIRECTION. This direction is displayed in the top left of the screen to the left of the message number, an Up arrow for forward and a Down arrow for backwards. The ESC key can be used at any time, any other option can only be selected while the appropriate menu is on the screen. Other options available only on Registered versions are: SHIFTED E, F and R. These work in the same way as Enter, Forward and Reply except that you have the option to change your name in the From: field to an alias. NOTE the following: 1/ Even though you have changed the name the BBS may change it back on upload to your 'real' name or perhaps reject the message; 2/ ALIASES ARE NOT GENERALLY PERMITTED IN FIDO ECHOES. There are exceptions to this but check with either your SYSOP or the area's Moderator. Message header information -------------------------- The message header area which is displayed at the top of the screen contains the following information, working left to right and top to bottom: 'Msg :' The message number of the current message in your packet. This does not relate to any message numbers used on your BBS. Between the 'Msg' and the colon there is an up or down arrow displaying the current reading direction, See <N>ext, revious for more information on this; 'Date :' The date the message you are reading was entered; 'Time :' The time the message you are reading was entered; Top right is displayed the current time and date based on the information entered by you or extracted from a CMD RTC. If this runs fast (or slow?) see the section in Options headed NSTC / PAL; 'Area :' The name of the conference from which the message came. If this appears as '>Area :' then you have <S>elected this conference and messages from other conferences will not be displayed. (See <S>elect Conf. in opening menu) 'To :' The addressee of the current message; Page 6 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation 'From :' The author of the current message; 'Status :' Displays the status of the current message, i.e. whether it is Read/Unread and Public/Private. If it is in the format 'Status*:' then you have <*>marked this message; 'Subj :' The subject of the current message. If you <R>eply to this message then the subject of your message will default to the contents of this field. Lastly in the bottom right of the header window there is an unidentified number like '10/458'. This is the size of the current message in Lines/Bytes. READ Commands ------------- Messages are displayed one screenful (page) at a time, with <Page break> shown in the bottom window of the screen if the end of the message is not visible. Any key except ESC or STOP will take you to the next 'page'. ESC : This key will abort the reading of the current message. It can be used for instance if you've read the first page and decided its not interesting to you. Pressing it while the <Page break> message is displayed will bring up the READ menu, pressing it again will move on to the next message in the direction shown as mentioned previously. (hint: to "scan" all messages just keep pressing ESC) <N>xt : Next. This allows you to read the next higher number message and establish a reading direction of forwards if it has previously been backwards. rv : Previous. This command will take you back to the previous message and establish the direction of reading as backwards. Once has been selected you must use <N>ext to read the next message to re-establish the reading direction as forward if that is what you wish to do. <A>gn : Again. Re-displays the current message. <E>ntr : Enter. Allows you to enter a message in any mail area. See ENTERing a Message. <F>wd : Forward. This allows you to reply to a message but forward the reply to another message area. This can be used to reply via NetMail to a message in a Fido area or to reply in Private mail to a Public message. Options are the same as reply except that a message area must be selected in the same manner as Enter a message. This option is disabled in Unregistered versions. <R>ply : Reply. Enter the Reply to a message in the current area - See REPLYing to a Message. e<X>prt: Export. Sends the current message as a CBM SEQ file to the USER disk drive. You will be prompted for a file name. The default name being the last name used (or 'filename' if no previous name has been specified). A check for pre-existing files is made and if found you have the option to replace it, append to it or abort the operation. A blank line will also abort. Entering a '$' will display the disk directory (with pattern matching). See the DOS for more info. e<X>port is not available on unregistered copies of the program. <O>ptions : This key leads to the OPTIONS menu (See OPTIONS). Page 7 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation <*> (Asterisk) : Mark/unmark messages. This allows you to mark messages for later reading or replying in conjunction with the <M>arked option on the first menu. If you have marked a message it is shown by an asterisk '*' symbol to the right of the word 'Status' in the message header. Pressing '*' the first time marks it and pressing it again UNmarks it. <Msg#> : You can enter any message number directly. If the message packet has been indexed to or beyond the number selected it will be immediately displayed, otherwise indexing will be carried out until the desired number is found. Note that if you have selected to read a specific conference rather than READ ALL and the selected number is not part of the current conference's mail the nearest acceptable message will be displayed. ie if you select message #1 but the lowest number in the selected conference is #20 then that will be the displayed message. If you have selected a specific conference then this is displayed by a '>' to the left of the word 'Area:' in the message header area to indicate that you are locked in this conference. <@> : Dos functions. This allows you to enter a DOS command which will act on the USER drive; or to change the selected USER drive. (See DOS) <$> : Directory. Displays the directory of the current USER drive. (See DOS). Note to that when entering a message you do not need to press the SHIFT key, the logo or control key is used instead. <S>tore : Saves the text of the current message to the REPLY disk in a MESSAGES.DAT format, but using the name SMALL.DAT. This is useful if you wish to store the message for later replying and have no further need for the entire MESSAGES.DAT file. Note: To access this SMALL.DAT file you must scratch the original MESSAGES.DAT file and rename the SMALL.DAT to MESSAGES.DAT, retaining the CONTROL.DAT file on the disk. This is the equivalent of "wittle" function used in the qwikread program in earlier releases. NOTE: Qwikread should NOT be used with QWKRR V3.x - it has a bug that may cause problems. <#> Print : This key will print the current message to your printer. the program will test for the presence of a printer although I find that with my set-up this doesn't always work and it will often 'print' the message header to the screen. Note: The printer is assumed to be device #4. It is opened with a secondary address of #7. (Future versions will have this user selectable, meanwhile if these cause a problem contact Rod for a suitable poke) <Q> Quit : Will return you to the opening menu to allow you to select a different method of reading or to exit the program completely to BASIC. REPLYing to a message ===================== On selecting <R>eply the program will set up a message header for you with your name / handle in the From: field, the author of the current message in the To: field and the Subj: the subject of the current message in it with the cursor over the name in the To: field so that you can edit it if you wish. If not just press <RETURN> and you will go to the next field, the Subj: field. If you leave both these fields blank the message will be headed To: All, Subj: Nothing in particular. After that you are asked whether or not to flag the message Page 8 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation as Private. When ENTERing a message the default is usually public. When REPLYing the default is the same as the message that you are replying to. Change this flag with caution. BE WARNED - flagging it as Private here will not always ensure it is posted on the BBS as private, if it is in a Public Message Only area it may be re-flagged to public by the BBS causing potential embarrassment! The reverse may also apply but is obviously less likely to cause a problem :-). Some BBS may reject messages which are inappropriately flagged for a particular area, the MKQwk mailer does this by re-posting the message to the sender in private mail, not a bad solution as the possibility of embarrassment is reduced and it is quickly apparent that a problem has been caused. Note: QWKRR V3.5 makes an "intelligent" decision as to whether a message is public or private, based on the conference name and the message you are replying to. It will offer this as the default flag setting. As a general rule it should rarely need changing. OK so you've said Yes or No to Private. The cursor now moves down to the body of the message, starting your message automatically for you with two words, the salutation (default 'Hi') contained in the FKEY files and the first part of the addressee's name, hopefully their first name. Now you can carry on and type your reply. The Editors ----------- There are two editors used for entering information into QWKRR128. This is a short description of the operation of both. Line Editor ----------- The line editor is used for entering file names, To:, From: and Subj: fields, taglines and function key definitions. The insert and delete keys function as described below and if a default is offered but not required then pressing the space bar before any other input will clear the field to allow entry of the new data or blank the field to allow the operation to be aborted. The cursor keys operate left and right in the usual sense. Cursor up or the Home key will move the cursor to the start of the string and cursor down or Shift/Home will move the cursor to the end of the string. Full Screen Editor ------------------ The Full Screen Editor is used to enter message text when ENTERing or REPLYing to messages. The editor in v3 has word-wrap capability, with the limitation that wordwrap ONLY occurs as text is entered and when the last character on a line is other than a space. If you insert or delete text and this forces words to be broken over the screen boundary these will not automatically wrap. If you are inserting text and cross the right screen margin the wordwrap will insert a blank line and wordwrap onto that rather than moving the text on the next line (and the next, and the next ...) right. The INSERT key operates in the normal sense as it does in BASIC, ie a space is inserted at the cursor location and the cursor remains in the same place while the text is moved right. The DELETE key functions as a dual backspace and delete key. In the middle of the text character at the cursor position is deleted with the text to the right being moved left and the cursor staying in the same position. At the end of a Page 9 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation text line (or screen) it will backspace deleting the preceding character. The Cursor keys operate as you'd expect with the following enhancements when pressed with the shift key: Up - Page (screen) up. Left - Top of page (same as home) Down - Page (screen) down. Right - Bottom of page. (screen). Messages are entered using the full screen editor and has a menu that is bought up by pressing either the Commodore Logo (C=) or Control keys and which gives you the following options : <A>brt <D>el ns <T>op tm <R>d i<M>pt e<X>pt <Q>te <S>ve <C>py <V><$@O#W> Referred to hereafter as the Reply menu. These options are selected by holding down either the Commodore Logo (C=) key or the Control key and pressing the desired option. NOTE: 1/ Due to an oddity in the C128 operating system Control-S and Control-Q do not at present work so you must use C=S or C=Q, but all the others will work with either the Logo or Control keys. 2/ i<M>port), e<X>port, <C>opy and W>rite are disabled in Unregistered versions. You will notice that when either the Logo or Control keys are pressed a tagline is displayed in the bottom window of the screen. The tagline that is displayed when you save the message will be appended to the message as a Fido format tagline. These taglines toggle through the available choices each time either the Logo or Control key is pressed to give a degree of randomness but still allowing specific taglines to be used if required. See Options menu / Taglines for more information. (For unregistered versions the internal QWKRR128 tagline is always used, even though the others can be loaded/saved and edited). The message editor features a side window containing the following: - a one hour message timer that is zeroed whenever you start to enter a message; - the current line and column cursor position; Note: QWKRR limits the column width to 72 characters. This conforms with QWK specifications and will avoid the possibility of your BBS reformating your messages when uploaded. - a buffer counter. When this reaches zero you will be given a warning. You may enter approx 500 bytes after this warning, but you run the risk of corrupting your message or crashing the program. Enter data after this warning at your own risk. QWKRR uses 4 main buffers that are dynamically assigned and the actual space available to you depends on the number of conferences (See WARNINGS) in your message packet and the size of the last read message. The information on the screen is stored in its own buffer so the buffer space indicated will not change until text moves off the screen. REPLY Commands -------------- <A>brt : Abort. This aborts the reply option and returns you to the message you were reading when you selected the REPLY option. <D>el or <Y> : Delete Line. Here you can delete a line which is either blank or contains text. The line the cursor is on is deleted and text below scrolled up. The cursor will reappear on what was the line below its position in the same column. The 'Y' option is included to conform with other software that offers a Control-Y line delete. Page 10 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation ns : Insert Line function. This allows you to insert blank lines one line at a time. The line is inserted at the line the cursor is currently on and the cursor and the text on the same line and lines below move down one line. <T>op : Takes you to the top of the message. (As does SHIFT-HOME) tm : THIS IS AN IMPORTANT COMMAND. Bottom. Takes you to the bottom of the message. Apart from doing this simple thing this command also recalculates the line numbers and resets various pointers. If anything looks wrong on the screen, e.g. line numbers not shown as correct, text appears to have vanished, etc this command SHOULD reset things. You can almost consider it a 'Panic' Key. The command is automatically performed prior to <S>aving and after mporting or <Q>uoting. Note: If the borders become corrupt for any reason these must be restored via the COLOUR options. <R>d : Read. Read a text file from the USER or another disk (see DOS). This has no effect on the message being written. Useful for reading file contents prior to importing. i<M>pt : Import. This option allows you to import a text file from your USER disk to include in a message. When you choose this you will be asked if you wish to import an <A>SCII or etscii (defaults to etscii) file and appropriate conversion will be carried out. The imported section of the message has a header and footer added automatically to delineate it and is inserted into the message on the line below the cursor. Text import can be aborted by pressing the stop key. It will automatically abort when the buffer fills. e<X>pt : Exports the message being created to the USER disk. Similar to the Export option on the read menu. <Q>te : Quote. This enables you to quote back to the person some of their own message so that they've got SOME idea of what you are referring to! FidoNet protocol suggests that you quote enough of the message to make sense but no more than you have to as someone has to pay for the text you enter to be transferred around the world. Remember too if replying on an international network that by the time the addressee receives it it could be 10 days since he or she entered the original.. On selecting <Q>uote one line of the original message will be listed in a window. The menu 'Select: <ENTER> <Q>uit <up-arrow> <down-arrow>' will appear. Pressing <ENTER> or <RETURN> will enter this line as a quote in your message preceded by the original author's initials and a '>' sign so that it is recognisable as a quote. The cursor keys will move you up or down a line and pressing 'Q' will return you to your message. The Quoted text will appear inserted in the message in the line below the cursor. Quoted text will wrap when it extends past the right hand margin. It does this by breaking any line longer than 72 characters into half and placing the quotee's initials and the '>' symbol at the beginning of the new line as well as the original line. It will take into account 'second generation' quotes, i.e. where you are quoting somebody's quote both sets of initials will be placed at the beginning of the line even when text wrap takes place. <S>ve : Save. This Saves the message to your REPLY disk using a file name prefix supplied by the BBS CONTROL.DAT file and the extension '.MSG'. This is the file to be packed and uploaded to your BBS. When Page 11 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation you save the first message in each session the program will check for the existence of a duplicate file name. If this is found you will be asked if you wish to <R>eplace it, <A>ppend to it or <Q>uit the saving of the message. Subsequent replies will be automatically appended to the first reply to create your reply file. If you Abort the saving of the message the message is not lost, you will be put back into the message editor so that you can rectify things (rename the old file, etc) and then <S>ave the message again. NOTE you cannot save a message until at least 10 characters have been typed into it. This is a safety catch to ensure that blank messages or Quotes without additional text are not saved. Text automatically entered, Quoted or Imported does not count. (Holding the space bar, and FKEY input does). <C>py : Copy. <S>aves the existing message and then prompts you to select another conference area and then enter the To: and Subj: fields in the message header. After you have done this you can make any changes you wish to and then <S>ave or <C>opy the message. You can Copy a message as many times as you wish. This is particularly useful to send the same netmail to several different people, or to send the same message via a public echo and netmail. <V> : View. Allows you to View a message you are writing in the same format as it will be read, complete with page breaks & highlighted quotes, etc. <$> Directory <@> DOS commands as in the READ menu. <O> Options <#> : Prints the created message to the printer. <W> : Write. Saves the created message to the USER disk without the header information. (Export without the message header). Useful if you type a message and wish to keep a copy for later use. ENTERing a Message ================== As was mentioned in the Reading Messages section pressing <E> at the menu in that area allows you to Enter a message other than a reply. When you select this you will be shown a list of all the message areas contained in the CONTROL.DAT file you are using. These will be listed with the name and number the SYSOP has assigned it. Any legitimate conference number can be entered at any time. Stop or ESC will abort the operation. After this has been done enter the Addressee's name and message subject. Once the information above has been entered you will be put into a message creation area basically the same as the Reply options except that you won't have a <Q>uote option available. Entering Netmail ---------------- Although the .QWK mail packet system was not designed to cope with the oddities of NetMail such messages can easily be sent with most BBS software. The following notes may help if you wish to attempt it manually as a lot of BBS' seem to follow one of the described methods to allow NetMail. Page 12 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation NOTE: Regardless what system your BBS uses you MUST select the correct area for netmail. This is usually identified as Netmail, Matrix-mail or something similar. You should also flag the message as private or the BBS may reject it (why send a public netmail message?). Using MKQwk or SuperBBS (MKQwk) -------------------------------- These systems will interpret the Subject of the message as containing a destination address if it starts with a '@' sign. Mail sent this way can also be flagged as Crash, Immediate or Direct Netmail as required by adding CRASH, IMM and / or DIR to the address. A normal subject can be added to an out-going Netmail message by putting 'Subj: <subject text>' on the first line of the message. The message should then look like, for example: To :Rod Gasson From:Mark Dowsett Subj:@3:800/851 --<end of header - beginning of message text >-- Subj:Netmail test. G'day Rod, (rest of message) The receiving BBS will do the rest. Using EzyQwk or Maximus (Qmail #1) ---------------------------------- These systems will accept Netmail provided the address is included as the FIRST line of the message like this: To :Rod Gasson From:Mark Dowsett Subj:Netmail Test --<end of header - beginning of message text >-- To:3:800/851 G'day Rod, --< Message text >-- The receiving BBS will do the rest. PCBoard (Cam-Mail) (Qmail #2) ------------------------------ This is similar to EzyQwk or Maximus, but the "To:" text should be replaced with "@>" : To :Rod Gasson From:Mark Dowsett Subj:Netmail Test --<end of header - beginning of message text >-- @>3:800/851 G'day Rod, --< Message text >-- The receiving BBS will do the rest. QSO/TBBS (QSO/TBBS) -------------------- Two formats are available, the first is in the TO: field place the persons name followed by @<fido address>, eg: To :Rod Gasson @3:800/851 From:Mark Dowsett Subj:Netmail Test --<end of header - beginning of message text >-- G'day Rod, --< Message text >-- The problem with this format is that the field is limited to 25 Page 13 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation characters. It may not be long enough to hold both the name and address. Because of this QSO also allows an alternate format. Once again it involves placing the fido address on the first message line. In this instance though it should simply be preceded with '@' eg: To :Rod Gasson From:Mark Dowsett Subj:Netmail Test --<end of header - beginning of message text >-- @3:800/851 G'day Rod, --< Message text >-- The receiving BBS will do the rest. NOTE: This is the format used by the Auto-net routines of QWKRR. Auto-Netmail ------------ QWKRR V3.5 has the ability to handle the netmail formatting automatically provided one of the above methods are used. Before QWKRR can do this though it needs to know 3 things. 1. The name of your BBS. It gets this automatically from the control.dat file. 2. The netmail conference. 3. The format required. (MKQwk, Qmail #1, Qmail #2 or QSO/TBBS) The conference and format are defined by entering SHIFT-N at any time the available conferences are listed. This will cause the conferences to be re-listed with the selection prompt flashing. Simply enter the number of your BBS's netmail conference. You will then be asked to select one of the 4 formats. Entering a #0 will cancel the auto-net routines. This information is then saved to the QWKRR boot disk using the name BBSID.net. This file is automatically loaded whenever QWKRR is re-run and the BBSID matches that of the current mail packet so you only need define it once for each BBS you use. (unless your sysop changes the conference numbers). Once this information has been defined or loaded, any message, whether it be a reply, entered, or forwarded into this conference will automatically be treated as private netmail. Furthermore, with this defined you can select the netmail conference by entering an unshifted 'n' at any of the conference selection prompts. Entering messages via the auto-net routines is similar to any other message. The exception being that rather than the public/private prompt the message is assumed to be private and you are prompted for a netmail (destination) address. If no net-mail address is given the message will be treated as any other message. QWKRR will scan the last message read for a default fido address. This is usually that of the Origin line, but in the absence of an origin line it will use any other valid address format it finds. QWKRR makes no attempt to check your input here, it is up to you to supply a legal address. Whilst entering a message via the auto-netmail routines the destination address and netmail format will be displayed at the top right of the screen. That is all there is to it. The appropriate formatting is performed when the message is saved. Note: Other formats will be made available as they become known to me. Page 14 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Packing the mail ================ Once you have read and replied to all your mail it is time to pack it and upload the final packet to your BBS. Note: If you have not finished with your replies then do not pack them at this stage. QWKRR will allow you to add additional replies to the packet in a future session. You cannot add to a packed reply packet. From the Read menu, press <Q> to quit to the exit menu. From here you can exit to BASIC, Pack your replies, boot CS-DOS or perform a cold reset. If you select ack you will be given the choice of ARC or ZIP. As a general rule use the same format that you downloaded. However *most* BBS software will determine the packer used when you upload the file with no further intervention from you, so either format will do. QWKRR will handle reply packets up to 60k or 240 disk blocks. It will abort if this size is exceeded. In order to save disk space QWKRR will give the option to scratch the .MSG file BEFORE saving the REP file. This will avoid disk full errors. The REP file will usually be the same size as the .MSG file, although it may occasionally be 1 block longer. (due to the archive headers) If disk space isn't a problem I suggest that you not scratch the MSG file, as this may be useful if you have problems. If using an external packer you need simply to pack the single file BBSID.MSG and rename it to BBSID.REP before uploading. Sending the mail ---------------- You will now be left with a file called BBSID.REP. You may now re-boot your terminal program, ring the BBS, go into the Offline Mail area and upload your package! Easy wasn't it?? Watch the progress of the Offline packet as you upload it as the Offline mail module on the BBS will normally report errors if they occur, but they won't stay on the screen for long. If new to the system turn your terminal buffer on before the upload so that messages can be examined later. If its all OK it will probably report at least the number of messages received and possibly the areas they were sent to and other information to let you know that it all worked. MKQwk reports for each message the area number and subject together with any error reports - commonly 'Message moved to Default area' if for some reason the message is not acceptable in the area you wanted it. Possible causes are: 1) Public mail in a Private area or vice versa; 2) Netmail without a legal address or sufficient Netmail credit. Reading what you Wrote ====================== So you want to read your own packet? You can't remember what you wrote or you just want to check the packet to make sure its readable? Its actually easy .. All you need to ensure that the CONTROL.DAT file that you were using when you wrote it is on the same disk as the .MSG packet itself. First rename the .MSG packet to MESSAGES.DAT and then boot QWKRR128. You will now be able to read your created packet as if it was a packet that you had downloaded. This is *not* really a planned function of the program (sort of a by-product). It is purely a de-bugging aid that can be used to check the validity of your reply packet. Do not attempt to edit your reply packet and do not reply to these replies. You CAN use the export/print options on this file if you wish. It comes in handy at times, e.g. a message that has been saved but that you need to edit could be e<X>ported and then, after you have Page 15 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation set up to re-read the ORIGINAL packet, i<M>ported and then edited. Mind you it might be simpler to retype it! <Note from Rod. Not if you regularly send 200-300 line messages as I do)! It is also possible to <R>ead your reply file from the editor. Although the formatting will be screwed the text is readable (select ASCII input). Options ======= Pressing the <O> key on menus where it is available brings up the following menu: <C>olours <F>keys <T>aglines rinter <N>stc/Pal <Q>uit These allow editing/saving of the areas mentioned and work in the following manner: <C>olours Allows the loading, editing and saving of the various colours used within the program. These are saved in a file called QWK.DEFAULTS. There can only be one of these files at any one time. Loading the Colour file is handy as when it is loaded the window frames on the screen are re-drawn so this is a useful method of resurrecting the borders if they become corrupted. The colour areas that can be selected are: 0 = background 1 = border 2 = Header text 3 = header data 4 = Message text 5 = Message highlight (quoted text. Any line with a ">" in the first 5 places) 6 = Clock 7 = Taglines (Any line starting with "...") 8 = Origin lines (Any line starting with " * Origin:") 9 = QWKRR128 identifier (Any line with "QWKRR128 V" starting in position 4 or 5) Selecting the appropriate key toggles through the available colours. NOTE: Any text which is in background colour will not be displayed as part of the message. This can be used as a method of stripping Taglines/origin lines etc. if required as your read your mail. (Tagline addicts can set all colours except taglines to the background colour and read nothing but taglines.) ;-) The QWK.DEFAULTS file also holds the data for PAL NSTC, the printer setting and the disk drive selections current when the colours are saved. Within the next two areas, Taglines and Function Keys, there can be multiple files saved in each category as long as the filename prefix is maintained. As long as you do your editing within the program this will be done automatically. If you wish to place a carriage return within a Function Key definition use an up-arrow ''. Because of this this character is not available as part of one of your definitions. The Default file names specified below are loaded when the program is first run. <F>keys Allows the loading, editing and saving of Function Key definitions that can be used for automatic text entry such as signoffs. Page 16 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Definitions can be up to 55 characters long. Also the <S>alutation used when you Enter or Reply to a message is stored in this file and can be edited from the default,'Hi'. If you wish to disable this feature enter a space followed by any other character in the Salutation definition. File name prefix is QWKK. and the default file name is QWKK.KEYS. The '$' option will give a directory of the Fkey files only. <T>aglines Allows the <L>oading, <S>aving, <E>diting, <V>iewing, <R>otation or <C>apture Taglines. The <$> option will give you a directory of tagline files only. These are saved in files prefixed QWKT. and the default file QWKT.TAGLINES. Ten taglines, numbered 0 to 9, can be saved in each file and additionally the last tagline read can be <C>aptured. When <C>apture is selected you are asked to select a number between 0 and 9 and the last read tagline is entered into the specified position. It is recommended that you redefine the Taglines before starting to use the program to avoid saving messages with Tagline 1, Tagline 2 etc.. As well as the user defined taglines there are 3 others always available. These are 'none' which will cause the message to be saved without any tagline, the last read tagline and the internal tagline 'QWKRR Offline read 'n' reply with a C128'. If the program is unregistered then the internal one is the only one which will be used. NOTE: It is possible that the last tagline read, which is one of the options you have when saving the message, is not a true tagline as some people tend to use tagline format (prefixed by ...) as their signature. The <R>otate option rotates the taglines through the Current selection. This has the same effect as pressing Control or C= Logo while editing a message but is faster. rinter This gives you the option to switch between a CBM compatible printer and a ASCII (Epson emulation) printer. This is saved with the QWK.DEFAULTS file. The printer file is opened as device #4 with a secondary address of #7. <N>tsc/Pal This allows the user to choose between NTSC and PAL setups. This *should* auto-detect correctly from location $0A03 but Rod has found some problems with one of his C128s. If the screen clock is running at visibly the wrong speed check this setting. This selection is saved with the QWK.DEFAULTS file. <Q>uit Returns to the REPLY menu. Page 17 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation <@> DOS commands ================ <@> This option will display a short line indicating <d>rive change, the current USER drive number plus an input prompt. Unless otherwise specified all dos commands will go to this (user) drive. All legal CBM DOS commands are accepted, such as s:filename to scratch the file r:newname=oldname to rename files etc. Entering a '@' at this point will cause the error channel to be read and displayed, likewise a '$' will display the directory. If a drive OTHER than the USER drive is required for any disk operation then simply append the command/function with a comma followed by the device number. Hence 's:filename,10' will scratch the file on drive 10. Likewise '$,11' will display the directory on drive 11 and '@,12' will read the error channel on drive #12. Pattern matching is allowed, as are drive specifiers (mainly for CMD owners unless anyone out there has a 1572 <g>). The '*' pattern match character is automatically added at the end of the filename (for directory operations). For instance entering '$:a' (or even '$a') will display all files STARTING with "a". Entering '$a,10' will display the same files from drive #10 ('$0:name,dv' is also acceptable), If a drive specifier is used it must be delimited by a colon. For instance '$3:a,10' will display all the "a" files from partition #3 on device #10. You may also specify file types with this string so that.. '$4:qw=p,9' will display program files starting with "qw" in partition #4 on drive #9 and '$4:qw=s,9' will display only the sequential files. This same format is also available from any of the filename prompts so it is easily possible to import or read a text file from any drive or partition. Likewise, the Taglines and Fkey files can also be loaded saved from a drive other than the system (boot) drive. NOTE 1: With these (taglines, fkeys) files their relevant prefixes are automatically added. At this stage CMD date stamped directory listings are not supported. NOTE 2: When the option to replace an existing file is given then the CBM save-with-replace ('@') command is used. This command is known to be buggy with the original ROM chips. To alleviate these problems a drive specifier is always used by QWKRR. That is '@0:filename' is what is actually sent to the drive (unless you have specified a different drive/partition). If you have older ROMS or still don't trust save-with-replace then I suggest you scratch the original file via the DOS commands. Page 18 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Supporting Programs & Files =========================== (c) 1993 by Russell Prater For use with QWKRR128 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT: The programs QPX and Tagthief are the original work of Russell Prater. All rights are reserved. They may be distributed freely so long as they are unaltered and no charge is made. TAGTHIEF: This is a stand alone Freeware program that allows you to convert a PETSCII SEQ (text) file of taglines into a format for use with QWKRR. See the separate .doc file for more information. QWK Packet Extractor QPX: QPX is designed to drive CSX128.ML ((c) Chris Smeets) to painlessly extract the .DAT and index files from an ARCed QWK style off line mail packet. CSX128.ML may be had in the distribution file called CSX01.SDA. No part of CSX01.SDA should be distributed in any but the original form without the expressed consent of the current copyright holder. INSTALLATION: As delivered QPX will not have the correct default QWK file names and may not be configured with your choice of disk device numbers. A provision is made for you to configure these as you like them. First load QPX and LIST line 100. You will see that the QWK packet name that is used most can be entered in R$. DD: Default disk device will be peeked from a location which shows the last device you accessed. CSX128.ML will normally be loaded from that device. DI: Input device. Where QPX will expect the BBSID.QWK file to be. DP: Output device. Where it will send the files as it deARCs them. DQ: The device where it will attempt to find QWKRR128 after the files are all dissolved. DR: Qwkrr's Reply drive. DU: Qwkrr's User drive Note: Setting these last two drives as #0 will cause QWKRR to prompt for them. You must set R$ to be what your usual QWK packet is named. You may set any or all of the device numbers to match your setup. Simply type over the Dx with 08, 09, or whatever you like. KL$: Maximus kludge - kl$="y" perform kludge or kl$="n" for no kludge. Hit the Return key to enter your choices and resave the file. RUN TIME: When RUN, QPX will load it's ML part (CSX128.ML) then show you what defaults you have set up. If you accept the defaults the program will run to completion with no farther input from you. QPX will even boot QWKRR128 for you, so you can go get a fresh cuppa while it works. After the current defaults are shown, you will be asked if you accept. Hit any key other than "n" to accept. If you've gotten a packet from some other BBS than normal or you want to use different drives, hit "n". You will be allowed to enter whatever you like for each default. When finished, you will be offered the Accept Y/n again so you can still correct any errors. When it's like you want it, hit return, space or whatever and your wishes will be obeyed. Changes entered in this way do not become a permanent part of the program. Page 19 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Kludge: Due to the padding used by Maximus software and some terminal programs QPX may abort with an error after extracting the last file. To avoid this error an option "Maximus kludge" is included. Although this error doesn't hurt, it will prevent QPX from loading QWKRR, thus negating the conference highlighting. If your mail packets don't have this problem then set the kludge option to NO. Kludging mail packets that don't need it will cause no problem but it will increase the time to unpack the mail. Highlighting Conferences ------------------------ As well as making unpacking of mail easy, QPX has another function. Whilst it is unpacking the .DAT files it will store .NDX data to allow active conferences to be highlighted in QWKRR128. If you use an unpacker other than QPX/CSX01 and wish to maintain this highlighting then the following must be duplicated: The QPX identifier should be poked into locations $b00,$b01,$b02 The identifier itself is "qpx" (#81, #80, #88) 10 a=dec("b00") 20 poke a,81 : poke a+1,80: poke a+2,88 This should be followed by the default drives in the order of: Messages drive User drive Reply drive. The drives must be online and only valid device numbers may be used (8-16), with the exception that if they are defined as drive #0 then QWKRR will prompt for them, otherwise your defaults will be used. 30 poke a+3, 8 :rem message drive #8. 40 poke a+4, 0 :rem let QWKRR prompt for this (USER) drive. 50 poke a+5, 9 :rem Reply drive#9. The next byte should contain the number of active conferences. Basically this is the number of .NDX files in your mail packet excluding the personal.NDX or other "special" .NDX files. This can be any number from 1 to 255 It will depend entirely on what is in any particular packet. 60 poke a+6, x :rem x = number of active conferences. For each active conference you must also store a two byte number corresponding to each active conference. This is in lo byte hi byte format starting at $0c00. How you obtain these numbers is up to you. 70 b=dec("0c00") 80 poke b, <conf#1 lobyte> : poke b+1, <conf#1 hibyte> : b=b+2 90 poke b, <conf#2 lobyte> : poke b+1, <conf#2 hibyte> : b=b+2 etc etc etc Finally your unpacker must boot QWKRR. 100 run "qwkrr128 v*",u(dv) Page 20 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Simply poking this data then trying to load or run QWKRR from the keyboard will corrupt your QPX identifier in $b00 thus making all the other data useless. Once this data has been poked, and QWKRR loaded and run the data will be stored along with the other QWIK.NDX data, thus you can quit and re-run QWKRR without the loss of these functions. However in this case QWKRR will always prompt you for the drive numbers, using your poked drives as the default. NOTE: There is no need to perform this for QWKRR to work. You can simply unpack you mail with any suitable means and run QWKRR with no problems. The only real difference being that the active conferences are not highlighted. Some BBS's only supply the active conference names in the control.dat file anyway. This being the case then these pokes will give you no benefits whatsoever. If you have any questions regarding this information please feel free to contact me. (Rod) Page 21 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Registration & Distribution =========================== The program version distributed is UNregistered and may be distributed further. There is a short program called REGQWKRR which, with information supplied by Rod Gasson, is used to convert the distributed program to a personally registered one which, as with previous versions, will only behave as registered if the correct name is found in the CONTROL.DAT file. To permit you to register the program Rod now only has to send you two codes which are then used as described below to allow remote validation by Rod after your registration has been received. Read through these notes before attempting to register your copy. The registration module will ask you for a registration code which Rod will supply and which will be a 12 digit number. Once this is entered a confirmation code will be displayed which consists of 4 numbers and two letters. This must be compared with the confirmation code supplied to you by Rod. If this is correct press <Y>es, any other key will abort. If it is incorrect then double check your registration number before contacting Rod for help. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT: never press 'Y' if the confirmation is not correct. This program does direct disk writes. Rod will not be held responsible for any disk corruption if the confirmation code is incorrect. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This module works by modifying the actual QWKRR128 program. It will modify the first program on disk starting with "qwkrr128 v". NOTE: It will quite happily attempt to modify earlier versions of QWKRR128 or any other file starting with the same string, causing corruption. Only use this program on v3.1 or later. This release is v3.5. The program will abort if a QWKRR128 program isn't found. CMD owners please note: REGQWKRR will only work on a QWKRR file stored in root directories. The plan is that all future QWKRR128 releases will conform to this standard so that any registered user will be able to upgrade future releases using the same program and codes or if their original copy becomes corrupted they can download another copy and register it without further delay. The only time the protection scheme and/or codes will be altered is if/when pirated/hacked copies of the program are found floating around. For this reason it is in your own best interest to not distribute a registered copy of the program, or to divulge you own registration codes to any other person. Although doing either of these is harmless within themselves, it will make the code easier to crack. Unfortunately with this system it is now not possible to have multiple registrations within the one program. Where multiple registrations are required (eg, Rod Gasson - Rodney Gasson) the registered user will be supplied with both sets of codes and the user can decide on how they use them. A registered copy of QWKRR128 can be identified if you load and list it. If the program is unregistered all you will see is a single line in reverse text reading "QWKRR128 V3.X (C) R.GASSON 1992/3". A registered copy will display the same line, but underneath (in normal text) will be displayed the confirmation code applicable to the person who registered it. Note: See separate registration form for details on costs etc). Page 22 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Files and filetypes. -------------------- This is a quick rundown of the various filenames you will come across while using QWKRR128. (note: BBSID is a variable name, the actual name is supplied by your BBS). BBSID.QWK (prg/seq) - This is the mail file you download from the BBS. This is an archived file containing the following sub files. MESSAGES.DAT (prg/seq) CONTROL.DAT (prg/seq) These are the two that QWKRR REQUIRES. There will also be several files called XXX.NDX. (prg/seq) These files need not be extracted, but their existence is used by QPX and QWKRR to highlight active conferences (ie, conferences with messages in them) There are also several other files, eg door.id, welcome and goodbye. None of these are required. BBSID.MSG. (seq) This is your "raw" reply file. All replies and entered messages are stored here. QWKRR creates and accesses this file with no user intervention. BBSID.REP. (prg) The is the "completed" reply file that you upload to the BBS. If using the inbuilt packers then QWKRR handles this. If using another packer then you must pack the file BBSID.MSG and call the PACKED file BBSID.REP. IMPORTANT. You must NOT change the name of the .MSG file itself. BBSID.net. (usr) Holds the netmail conference and format required for any particular BBS. This file is searched for and loaded whenever QWKRR is run. (see Auto-netmail for more details) QWIK.NDX. (usr) This is also created by QWKRR. It holds the data for message pointers, and the active conferences if QPX was used to unpack mail. QWIK.NDX is only valid for the current mail packet and disk on which it was created on. A new (updated) QWIK.NDX file is saved whenever you quit the program. QWK.DEFAULTS. (usr) This file contains your colour preferences, printer type, PAL/NTSC setting, and the current drives numbers. It loads when QWKRR is first run. QWKK.filename (seq) - Holds your Fkey definitions. QWKT.filename (seq) - Holds your Tagline files There may be as many of these files as you wish. QWKRR expects to find them on the same drive you boot QWKRR from. The default names QWKK.KEYS and QWKT.TAGLINES are searched for and loaded when QWKRR is first run. SMALL.DAT (seq) This is a utility type file that QWKRR creates when you <S>tore messages. It uses the same format as the messages.dat file, and is useful for breaking a large mail packet down to a smaller packet for later use. SMALL.DAT must be renamed to messages.dat before it can be used. You should also use the same control.dat file that was used when the file was created. Page 23 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Drive usage ----------- QWKRR uses 4 predefined drives for its various input/output functions: The drives are: QWKRR drive: This should contain all the system files, such as Fkeys, taglines, BBSID.NET files and QWK.Defaults. If you wish to boot CS-DOS on exit, then CS-DOS should also be on this drive. After initial startup the disk in this drive can be swapped for a disk of taglines and/or fkeys definitions. The only other time QWKRR will access this drive is to for the defaults file (colours), BBSID.NET files (only when redefined), and for booting CS-DOS upon exitting. REPLY Drive: This is where QWKRR stores your replys (bbsid.msg) and looks for them when packing. It also stores your REP file on this drive. It is recommended that you not change the disk in this drive. USER Drive: This is where all general input/output is performed, such as e<X>orted messages and <W>rite files. This drive can be re-selected at any time via the DOS options. MESSAGES Drive: This drive is where QWKRR expects to find the DAT files. It also stores the QWIK.NDX files here. For this reason you should always leave several blocks free (On a floppy system 10 blocks will be sufficient). You should never remove the disk from this drive (or be sure to replace it before attempting to read another message). ---oooOOOooo--- Contact addresses etc ===================== Program by : Rod Gasson 90 Hilliers Road REYNELLA SA 5161 Australia Telephone +61 8 322 2716 NetMail 3:800/851 Documentation by : Mark Dowsett P.O. Box 227 RANDWICK NSW 2031 Australia Telephone +61 2 399 6549 NetMail 3:713/888 Tagthief & QPX by : Russell Prater ( Moderator CBM Fido Conference ) NetMail 1:3608/1 Page 24 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Glossary. ========= ARC An ARChive file containing one or several compressed files. This term must be used with caution in the Commodore 8 bit world as there are two incompatible forms of ARC available to us. The original 'CBM' ARC can only be used on C128 and C=64 computers and this is not compatible with any other operating system. The other form of ARC was originally only for MS-DOS operating systems but has become more widely used. There are programs available to dissolve and create these .ARCs on both C128 and C=64 computers. BVZIP/BVUNZIP PKZIP v1 compatible ZIP and UNZIP programs written by Bruce Vrieling to run under CSDOS. CSARC/CSXARC Program options available under CSDOS to dissolve and create IBM style .ARCs. CSXARC, the deARCing module is available separately in a package that contains code to run in both 64 and 128 modes. The ARC modules can only be run in 128 mode under CSDOS 'SHELL'. CSDOS A very flexible FREEWARE operating system written for the C128 by Chris Smeets. It has as similar command structure to MS-DOS and the ability to run a wide series of commands that can be installed in the Ramdisk, either held in a REU or internally in 128 RAM. Common commands are : TYPE COPY COMP(are) etc CSX01 A C64/128 stand alone program by Chris Smeets that allows IBM ARC files to be dissolved only. (Highly recommended for use with QWKRR and required by QPX). UNZIP64 A C64 program by Bill Lucier to UNZIP IBM style ZIPS. (faster than BVUNZIP). TAGTHIEF A program by Russell Prater to convert text tagline files to QWKRR format QWKT.* files. Separate .DOC file included. QPX A utility program by Russell Prater to deARC .QWK packets for QWKRR. QWK A common MS-DOS based BBS mail packet format. There are others such as XRS and Bluewave. QWKRR128 only supports .QWK packets. QWKRR128 The Best C128 QWK mail reader in the world. (apologies to Ismael Cordeiro) ;-) Page 25 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Index ----- @ (DOS) 18 Defaults, PAL/NTSC 23 # (Print) 8 Defaults, Printer 23 $ (directory) 8, 18 Delete character 10 * (mark/unmark) 8 Delete line 10 Abort 10 Directory 8, 18 Again 7 Disk drives 1, 24 Aliases 6 Distribution 22 Arc 3, 25 DOS commands 8, 18 Archives 3 Drive selection 18 Area selection 5 Drive usage 24 Ascii import 11 Editor, Line 9 Auto-Netmail 14 Editor, Screen 9 Basic 5, 8 Entering messages 7, 12 BBDID.MSG 23 Errors (Maximus kludge) 20 BBSID.NET 23 ESC (escape) 7 BBSID.QWK 23 Exit 5 BBSID.REP 23 Exit menu 5 Bottom of text 11 Export 7 , 11 Buffer size 10 EzyQwk-netmail 13 BVunzip 25 Filenames 23 BVZIP 25 Files 1, 23 Bytes (message size) 7 Filetypes 23 Bytes free 10 Fkeys 16 Cam-Mail-Netmail 13 Fkeys from different drives 18 Capture taglines 17 Flagging messages 9 CMD Notes 1, 4, 22 Forwarding replies 7 Cold reset 5 From 7 Colours 16 FSE 9 Column width 10 Full Screen Editor 9 Commands, Read 7 Glossary 25 Conference Highlighting 20 Header information 6 Conference limits 1 Hi 9, 17 Conference Selection 5 Highlighting conferences 2, 20 Conflicts/CS-DOS 3 Home 11 Contact addresses 24 How to get the mail 3 Continue 6 Import 11 Control key 10 Index files 1 , 6 Control.dat 4 Insert character 9 Copy 12 Insert line 11 Corruption 11 Kludge Maximus 3, 20 Creating Indexes 6 LHA 2 Credits 24 Limitations 1 CS-DOS 2, 5, 25 Line editor 9 CSARC 25 Lines, message 7 CSX01 2, 3, 25 Logo key 10 CSXARC 25 LZH 3 CTRL-Y 10 Mail errors 15 Cursor position 10 Mail packets 3 DAT files 1 Marked messages 5 Date 4 Marking messages 8 Default Colours 16 Maximus Kludge 3, 20 Defaults, Colours 23 Maximus-netmail 13 Defaults, Drives 23 Menu, exit 5 Page 26 QWKRR128 V3.5 Documentation Index ----- Menu, opening 5 Reading direction 6 Menu, options 16 Reading individual messages 8 Menu, Read 6 Reading Messages 6 Menu, reply 10 Reading your replies 15 Message header 6 Registration 22 Messages Drive 24 Reply commands 10 Messages.dat 4 Reply drive 24 MKQwk-netmail 13 Reply menu 10 Msg# 6, 8 Replying to messages 7, 8 Multiple registrations 22 Restore screen 16 NDX files 4, 23 Rotate taglines 17 Netmail 12 RTC 4 Netmail-EzyQwk 13 Salutation 9, 17 Netmail-Maximus 13 Saving replies 11 Netmail-MKQwk 13 SBBS-netmail 13 Netmail-PCBoard (Cam-Mail) 13 Screen Editor 9 Netmail-QSO 13 Selecting Conferences 5 Netmail-SBBS 13 Sending the mail 15 Netmail-TBBS 13 Shift home. 11 Next 7 Small.dat 8, 23 NTSC 17 Starting QWKRR 3 Opening menu 5 Status 7 Options 7, 16 Storing messages 8 Packet size 1 Stripping lines 16 Packing replies 5, 15 Subject 7 PAL 17 Suggestions 2 Panic 11 SuperBBS-netmail 13 Pattern matching 18 Support programs 19 PCBoard-Netmail 13 Taglines 10, 17 Petascii import 11 Taglines (capturing) 17 Previous 7 Taglines from other drives 18 Printer 8 Taglines, rotate 17 Printer defaults 17, 23 Tagthief 19, 25 Private 9 TBBS-Netmail 13 Protocol 3 Time 6 Public 9 Time (setting) 4 QPX 2, 3, 25 Timer 10 QPX (main> 19 Timers (PAL/NTSC) 17 QPX Identifier 20 To 6 QSO-Netmail 13 Top of text 11 Quit 8 Unpacking 2 Quoting 11 Unregistered 5, 7, 10, 22 QWIK.NDX 23 UnZip 2 Qwikread 8 Unzip64 25 QWK.DEFAULTS 16, 23 User Drive. 24 QWKK.<name> 17, 23 Using Aliases 6 QWKRR drive 24 Using QWKRR 4 QWKRR Usage 4 View 12 QWKT.<name> 17, 23 Warnings 2, 9, 22 Read Commands 7 What do you need 2 Read Menu 6 Why do you need it 2 Read text from disk 11 Write command 12 Reading all 5 Zip 2, 3, 25 Page 27