Software Vault: The Diamond Collection/The Diamond Collection (Software Vault)(Digital Impact).ISO/cdr37/jm_pi_12.zip/PHONES.DOC

Text File | 1995-03-05 | 16KB | 2,049 lines

                              Phone Inputter v1.2
                  Copyright (C) 1995, by Cutting Edge Online
                             All rights reserved.

                  Programming and Documentation by John Marx


















       Cutting Edge Online                              [phone] Voice
       6372-B Kucinski Street                           [phone] BBS
       Fort Polk, LA  71459                             Hayes Optima 28.8k
       U.S.A.                                           FidoNet: 1:3817/9

 Phone Inputter v1.2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                              System Requirements

     The requirements for using this PPE are as follows:

          a.  PCBoard 15.21+ (This program was created with PPLC v3.0 and will
not work with any version less than 15.21.)

          b.  Enough space on your hard drive for installation of the
program.

          c.  It's not needed but placing this PPE and all your PPE's into
different subdirectories is helpful.  This allows you to more easily update
or remove a PPE with it's accompanying files.  Plus if you place more than
one PPE in a directory you may run into the program trying to use a file it
shouldn't.

     This is all that is needed to run this program.

 Phone Inputter v1.2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                               Program Overview

    This program came out of a challenge to make a prompt which was more
multitasker friendly. There was already one released by Mario Mueller called
phone (tm) except for the fact that it didn't release time cycles to the
multitaskers and it didn't allow the SysOp to define their own BAD numbers. I
feel I've taken his idea and improved upon it tremendously. His program was not
acceptable to me for every 1/18th of a second counts and I'm greedy. I couldn't
stand not knowing which numbers were bad or not so I came up with a program
which would suit my tastes.

     Some off the features are:

          - 100% Maintenance Free
          - Prompts Definable
          - 100% language support
          - User/SysOp Friendly
          - Automatic installation if you so choose
          - BAD List files base on (upto 30 each):
                - Area Codes
                - Prefixes
                - Suffixes
                - Entire numbers
          - Built in BAD phone numbers (i.e. [phone], [phone], etc)

 Phone Inputter v1.2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Program Installation

     Installation of this program should only take a matter of minutes and
will never need your assistance again. There are two files you may wish to
mess with first. The two files are not required to run the program, just are
there for your customization. If the files aren't found it will go by the
program defaults, my defaults. These four files are:

        a. PROMPTS - allows you to define the PROMPTS to display to the user
                     when they're entering there first and last names. This
                     file is also multilingual aware so you may have more than
                     one file so that you may prompt your users in their
                     specific language which they have chosen.

        b. NAME.CNF - This is the configuration file. Currently only one line
                      is available. The line contains how many time slices
                      (1/18th of a second) to release. I suggest any number
                      from 0 (none) to 3 (3/18ths of a second).

        c. BAD-AREA - List of all bad area codes. You may have upto 30 separate
                      lines of bad area codes.

        d. BAD-NUMB - List of all bad phone numbers. You may have upto 30
                      separate lines of bad phone numbers.

        e. BAD-PREF - This is a list of all the bad prefixes. You may have upto
                      30 lines of bad prefixes.

        f. BAD-SUFF - This is a list of all the bad suffixes. You may have upto
                      30 lines of bad suffixes.

     Before I tell you how to install the program by a step-by-step method I
will explain how you may automate the installation process so that it will be
even quicker for you! How about that!

        a. If you would like to try the automated way you could type the
           following and feasably change ALL or a selective few or just one
           of your PCBTEXT files by typing something similar to:

                INSTALL D:\PCB\TXT\PCBTEXT.* D:\PCB\PPE\PHONES
                ^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
                │       │                    └─ This will be the path where
                │       │  you installed the PPE's. Notice that there is NO
                │       │  trailing "\". This is very important.
                │       └─ This is the path to your PCBTEXT files with
                │          or without an extension. By adding the .* you
                │          would change ALL of your PCBTEXT files in the
                │          subdirectory your specified.
                └─ This is the batch file to run

     If you don't feel upto the automated approach you may still easily install
the program. Now that you've made your changes, if any, you will need to edit
one or all of your PCBTEXT files so that the PPE will be called. To do this we
will need to do the following:

        a. Execute MKPCBTXT PCBTEXT.language

        b. Press the F3 key and enter the number 113

        c. You will want to replace the text that is currently in this field
           with something similar to:

                (1) !d:\pcb\ppe\phones\phones.ppe DATA

        d. You will now press F3 again and enter the number 114

        e. You will want to replace the text that is currently in this field
           with something similar to:

                (1) !d:\pcb\ppe\phones\phones.ppe VOICE

        f. Press the ESCape key until you exit the program.

     You are now ready to test the program. Load PCBoard and logon to the
system. The prompt should appear and if you get no "File Not Found" messages
or "garbage" on your screen you've done a marvalous job!

 Phone Inputter v1.2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                           Possible Error Codes

     There are several reasons for error codes.  The main reason is something
went wrong in the program.  Even though all efforts have been made to remove
any and all possible errors there still may be some configuration we haven't
thought of.  As such we've included extensive error checking in all of our
programs to eliminate any and all possible errors.

     Errors will be shown to the caller on the screen explaining what went
wrong and why if the program can determine without a doubt what it was.

     All errors will be logged to the callers log!  This allows you to
correct any problems that your users might not tell you.  A lot of times when
an error occurs the users like "that's nice."  We feel that even as nice as
it would be for the user to explain to the SysOp what they were doing when
such errors occur, we know not to expect it so we've added this to the code
as well.  When it logs this information to the callers log it also logs the
exact saying that it gave to the user.  This gives you the most complete
information we can.

     You may also wish to check out the "Frequently Asked Questions" at the
end of this document for it may cover a question you are currently having
about PCBoard and PPE's.

 Phone Inputter v1.2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Contacting the Author

     I can be reached on either my BBS or through my home phone number at any
time.  If I'm not home and you receive the answering machine just leave your
name and number with a short explanation, if you can, of the problem.  I WILL
call you back as soon as I can and if you gave me a description of your
problem will more than likely have an answer for you when I do call you back.

     When you do call us with information about a bug in the program please
give us the following information.  This information will help us determine
what the problem is:

          1.  Program name and version number.

          2.  Type and brand of computer, hard disk, plus any peripherals.

          3.  Version of DOS plus any TSRs or device drivers in use.

          4.  Explanation of your AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS files.

          5.  Description of what is in memory from the MEM command (DOS 4
              and above users only) or a similar utility.

          6.  The exact problem you are having.  Please be as specific as
              possible.  Having a printout of the screen and/or being at your
              computer will be helpful.

     The Cutting Edge Online BBS operates 24 hours a day, is using a Hayes
Optima 28.8k modem, PCBoard 15.2/10 and the number is [phone].  You
will be able to download if you wish on the first call.  There are no
callback doors.  We do use CALLER-ID for just this purpose.  I personally
don't like callback doors and am sure many others feel the same.  We've
recently upgraded the system bringing the system to 13.2 Gigs online with
5 CD-ROMs.

     I'm available also on the PCBoard Support BBS, Salt Air.  I only call
once a week, normally on Saturday so the replies won't be as quick as you may
like.  I'm also in the FidoNet PCBoard, PCB-Net conferences.  Our FidoNet
address is 1:3817/9.

     If you have a problem, suggestion, comment, download or just wish to
talk please call and we will be more than glad to serve you.  We're not happy
until YOU are happy so let us know if we're doing something wrong.  If we're
doing it right tell your fellow PCBoard SysOps, if not tell US!