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Monster Media 1994 #1
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COMMIE02.ZIP
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1994-02-15
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COMMIE r.02
A free program brought to you by John Rohner.
I can be reached for comments/etc. at Immortality (414-643-1576).
This is a bare-bones communication program to use when calling BBS's that
support the GIP graphics exchange protocol. Such as Juggernaut.
GIP (Graphics Interchange Protocol) allows BBS's and callers to view VGA
graphics as easily as they do ANSI graphics.
This program is also an example of how other communication program authors
can add support for GIP to their programs.
As a stand-alone communications program, it's not great. You will want to
hang on to what you're using now.
This program has the following features:
GIP support (VGA or better required)
Avatar support
upload/download files
use arrow keys
fossil-based communications
This program has the following limitations:
Zmodem only protocol
no dialing directory
no other frills
requires a fossil driver
COMMIE.CFG
The program requires that you have a fossil driver. Probably only X00 1.24
or higher will work. In your CONFIG.SYS:
DEVICE = X00.SYS R=4096 T=2048 E
will do for most people. The "R=4096 T=2048" is required for GIP support.
Some things you can configure in the COMMIE.CFG file. The file is a standard
text file which you may edit with any text editor.
The lines immediately following "REMINDERS" are displayed when you run the
program. These are useful for holding the numbers of BBS's.
The lines immediately following "SETTINGS" are configuration information,
and must remain in the same order.
ATE1X4 This is the initialization string your modem needs.
This will do for most people--but if you have troubles,
check what your current communications program sends, and
use that.
19200 This is the speed to talk to your modem at. It is
usually the highest speed your modem can handle.
Valid values are: 1200, 2400, 9600, 19200, 38400
No "57600"--use 38400 instead.
C:\DSZ.EXE Pathname to your Zmodem program.
BIOS ON This means to use Direct/BIOS (fast) screen writing,
anything else here disables BIOS. This is also used
to tell the software whether to use Direct graphics
writing. So if your graphics are all screwed up always,
you should turn this off.
2DH If you have an SVGA card, put your cards screen MODE for
640x480x256 here. This can usually be found in the
modem's docs. If you can't find it, don't worry about
it--it's only needed if the BBS wants to use SVGA modes.
2EH If you have an SVGA card, put your cards screen MODE for
640x480x256 here.
The lines immediately following "MACROS" are hot-key'd macros. Put the text
you want to send in these, then when you hit F1 - F10 that text is sent
(everything after the "="). Use "|" for a CR/LF.
OPERATION
Not much to say, just run it.
The GIP protocol automatically captures and updates any graphic files
(such as icons) that the BBS uses.
These will be stored in the BBSSTUFF\ directory, which will be created in
the current directory. So it's best to always run COMMIE from the same
place, preferable it's own directory.
The GIP protocol automatically updates and creates the graphic files for
a BBS, so there is no need to download the BBS's graphic files.
Only Zmodem is supported to download and upload files.
You can speed up some BBS's by switching Avatar ON on their BBS.
The arrow keys are active, pressing them works on some BBS's for stuff.
If the BBS uses menus that your monitor cannot handle (such as SVGA, or
VGA and you don't have a VGA system), the software will still try to display
the graphics. But this might cause troubles, so if the BBS uses graphics
your system can't handle, just use the BBS's normal ANSI screens.
Commands:
<pgup> to send file(s) (upload to a BBS)
<pgdn> to receive file(s) (download from a BBS)
<alt>c to reset the screen to non-graphics mode (clear screen)
<alt>h to hang up
<alt>s to shell to DOS
<alt>x to exit the program
PROBLEMS
problem: Getting strange characters on the screen after the "What is your
comm port" question.
solution: Fix the baud rate in COMMIE.CFG.
problem: GIP isn't working. When selected, it locks up/stops about where
icons should be displayed.
solution: You don't have "R=4096 T=2048" in your CONFIG.SYS device line for
X00.
problem: You want to make programming changes to the source code.
solution: Source code is available with JDR_BBS (Juggernaut). But you also
need Basic PDS 7.x.
problem: You see only the text from menus on the screen, no graphics.
solution: Your computer is not going into the graphics mode the sysop is
using, or possibly line noise has confused everyone. Hitting
[Enter] usually redraws the menu--if it redraws correctly you
know it was just line noise troubles.