Night Owl 6/Night Owl's Shareware - PDSI-006 - Night Owl Corp (1990).iso/001a/mud031.zip/MUDD.DOC

Text File | 1991-10-26 | 17KB | 431 lines

MUDD v0.31 (Method unto Dialing Directories)
===========================================

a ProComm Plus v2.x utility
designed and programmed by Hugh M. McNally for
Reservoir Software, Copyright 1991
All Rights Reserved

Hugh M. McNally
Reservoir Software
1 Cabin Ridge Road
Chappaqua, NY 10514
914-923-1644
CompuServe: 70441,3716 (best chance of catching me)
GEnie: hmcnally3


BEERWARE Manifesto
------------------

MUDD is released to the computing public under the BEERWARE concept.  If you
like this program and use it often as one of your "neat utilities," please
send me $15 for a case of beer (cheap domestic beer, I assure you, or maybe
just 2 six-packs of a higher calibre brew).  You could also send beer, but I
doubt you'll do that due to the obvious expense involved.  If you happen to
live near the above address, please take me out for a beer.

Some shareware authors ask for floppy disks in trade for their work.  Please
do not send disks, tapes, pictures, videos, or worthless jewelery.  Just money
or beer.

MUDD does not, and will never, have any stupid "shareware" screen pausing,
"for more features, pay me" notices, or "limited number of runs."  Those of
you who don't pay for this program (i.e., thieves) will have the same program
as those of you who send me $15.  After all, a car thief doesn't steal a car
with no engine.

This program is not public domain.
This program is not free (it costs $15).
If you pay me, I'll make sure you find out about upgrades.  I promise.
If you pay me, I will acknowledge your kindness with EMail or a postcard.
If you use MUDD without paying me, you're a thief of my intellectual property.


With that said, I'll add these provisos:

o  If you find a bug in MUDD and are the first to report it to me, you have
   satified the BEERWARE conditions.  Thank you for making MUDD a better
   program.  (A typo in this document is not a bug.)

o  If you're too cheap to send me any money at all, you can ease your guilty
   conscience (without any snide remarks from me in return) by sending EMail
   or regular mail thanking me for having written this program.  At
   least have a beer in my honor!


...and the disclaimer:

o  If MUDD screws up your dialing directories, your hard disk, or anything
   else, either because MUDD has a bug or you plain misunderstood how to use
   it,  too bad.  It's not my fault.  You should have backed up your
   directories before using anything like this. Seriously, though, I have
   tested this program rather extensively on many different platforms, and
   would not release it to the public in good faith without believing that
   it works.


Purpose
-------

MUDD is a utility that:

o  joins two ProComm 2.x dialing directories together into a third, "merged"
   dialing directory.

o  "localizes" that merged dialing directory based on a supplied area code,
   that is, strips your local area code from any number that is prefixed by
   it.

o  sorts the merged directory in more ways than ProComm Plus could (ascending
   and descending by name, number, etc.) far faster than ProComm does.

o  standardizes the format of phone numbers to be [x-xxx-]xxx-xxxx (no
   parentheses, spaces, or what have you).  If you don't like numbers this
   way, don't use MUDD.

o  strips any PBX '9' prefix from the numbers in the merged dialing directory
   (you should have that in your dialing prefix, not in a phone number!).

o  eliminates "dead slots" from the target directory (you know, those ones in
   the middle that you erase and can't get rid of until you sort the
   directory).  If you choose not to sort the target .DIR file, empty slots
   in one directory will be filled up by the other in the order they are found.


In short, using this program should make your dialing directories as clear as,
well, MUDD!


MUDD packing list, et al
------------------------

MUDD comes in a file called MUDxxx.ZIP, where xxx is the version number
(MUD030.ZIP would be v0.30).  If you didn't get it that way, "caveat emptor."

If you think MUDD is great and want to upload it to some BBS to increase your
upload/download ratio, please use the original .ZIP.  This .ZIP is not
"PK authenticated" because I know there's already programs out there that
crack this admittedly noble attempt at virus thwarting.

MUDxxx.ZIP has 2 files as of this version:

MUDD.EXE
MUDD.DOC

You're reading MUDD.DOC.  You can delete it after you have printed the MUDD
order form at the end (and have sent me $15).  You don't need it to run the
program MUDD.EXE.

MUDD runs from any directory.  You'll probably keep it in your ProComm
directory (a good place, to be sure).  MUDD knows about the PCPLUS environment
variable, and tacks it onto the start of any file spec that does not have any
drive or path information in it (i.e., the characters "\" or ":").

MUDD also uses the ProComm standard .DIR extension for dialing directories
unless you specifically use a different extension.  I don't know why you might
do this (since ProComm itself lacks the ability to read directories not ending
in .DIR), but you could use PCPLUS.WHY, as long as it was a valid dialing
directory.  What MUDD will do if a file isn't a dialing directory can be fun,
but the resulting merged file is usually as harmless as it is useless.

Unfortunately, MUDD does not run in a ProComm DOS shell.  Read the end of this
document to find out why.


Syntax
------

MUDD has at least 2 parameters, and at most, 7.  I'll try making this as
painless as possible by enumerating each parameter and describing each
separately:

MUDD <1> <2> [<3> <4> <5> <6> <7>]


<1>   The sort key
      o mandatory
      o defaults: none

This is one of the following letters:

n: sort by Name                  (n- for descending sort)
p: sort by Phone number          (p- for descending sort)
b: sort by Baud rate             (b- for descending sort)
t: sort by Total number of calls (t- for descending sort)
l: sort by Last time called      (l- for descending sort)
x: sort by Xfer protocol         (x- for descending sort)
u: don't sort!

The letter will determine the sort order of the target file (the source files
are NOT altered unless you happen to specify it as the target).  Put a minus
sign ("-") after the letter to get a descending sort.  If you choose not to
sort, duplicates between the two dialing directories will not be filtered in
any way (yes, you'll have 2 of the same phone number in the target).

Sorts by phone number (ascending and descending) will put local (7 digit)
phone numbers on top of the list.  This is usually the most desirable thing to
do, so that's what MUDD does.  If you have an entry with no phone number (for
example, a direct-connect null modem entry), that will be on top of the list.


<2>   The first source file
      o mandatory
      o default: none

This is the filename of a dialing directory.  If you exclude the file
extension, .DIR will be tacked on the end.  If you exclude a path/drive AND
you have the PCPLUS environment variable set, it will be stuck on the
beginning.  For example, this DOS sequence:

SET PCPLUS=C:\PCPLUS
MUDD p topbbs

would make MUDD refer to the file C:\PCPLUS\TOPBBS.DIR.  If you didn't know
about the PCPLUS environment variable, now you know; ProComm uses it, and so
does MUDD.

The contents of this dialing directory get INSERTED INTO the contents of the
next file.  This ordering of parameters might not make sense at first, but it
allows you to specify just one file name on the command line, since the others
have default values.

The file itself WILL NOT BE CHANGED unless you specify it as the target file.


<3>   The second source file
      o optional
      o default: [PCPLUS environment variable +] PCPLUS.DIR

This is the directory that will be the RECIPIENT of the numbers in the first
file.  Again, the actual file WILL NOT BE CHANGED unless you specify it as the
target file.

MUDD p topbbs mylist
--will insert the entries of TOPBBS.DIR into MYLIST.DIR.

MUDD p topbbs
--will insert the entries of TOPBBS.DIR into PCPLUS.DIR.

If there are too many entries between the 2 source files (more than 200), you
will be warned that an incomplete merge is about to take place, and you can
stop short of creating the new merged file.


<4>   The target file
      o optional
      o default: [PCPLUS environment variable +] MERGED.DIR

This is the ONLY file that is altered on disk.  The first two files are read
into memory, merged, then written to this file.

A neat trick about the target file name is that you can specify the SAME file
as either (or both) of the source files (yes, there's a good reason to both;
see more near the end of this document).  As you gain confidence in MUDD, you
will find yourself specifying the same file for the target as you do the
second source file; however, at first, you might want to stay with the default
target filename, MERGED.DIR.  You can look at this file with ProComm and
decide for yourself whether to rename it to PCPLUS.DIR.

N.B.: The target will overwrite any existing file with the same name without
warning.  This is a DOS command line utility, you know.  Actually, with the
defaults as they are, you probably won't get into much trouble (unless you
really become attached to MERGED.DIR).

MUDD p topbbs
--inserts TOPBBS.DIR into PCPLUS.DIR and creates MERGED.DIR

MUDD p topbbs mylist newlist
--inserts TOPBBS.DIR into MYLIST.DIR and creates NEWLIST.DIR

MUDD p topbbs pcplus pcplus
--inserts TOPBBS.DIR into PCPLUS.DIR and creates a new PCPLUS.DIR


<5>   The home area code of the first source file
      o optional
      o default: none (if you leave it out, local numbers remain)

This is an optional switch.  Switches start with "/".  So...

MUDD p njbbs /201

will add the area code 201 to all the local numbers in NJBBS.DIR when it
creates the target file MERGED.DIR.  This is a a very handy feature!


<6>   The home area code of the second source file
      o optional
      o default: none (if you leave it out, local numbers remain)

The same deal as <5>.  If you want this parameter but not the one before it
(parameter <5>), just use a dummy parameter for <5>, like /999.  You can't
leave out <5>, include <6>, and expect MUDD to know the difference.

MUDD p njbbs bronxbbs /201 /212

will add the area code 201 to all the local numbers in NJBBS.DIR, and 212 to
all the local numbers in BRONXBBS.DIR, when it creates the target file
MERGED.DIR.


<7>   The home area code of the target file
      o optional
      o default: none (if you leave it out, no numbers from the source files)
                 are changed)

Very similar to <5> and <6>, except that any numbers starting with this area
code will have that area code stripped from it, thus generating local numbers
for it.  The same deal about skipping area codes as explained above applies
here.

MUDD p njbbs bronxbbs /201 /212 /914

will add the area code 201 to all the local numbers in NJBBS.DIR, and 212 to
all the local numbers in BRONXBBS.DIR, when it creates the target file
MERGED.DIR.  Any 914 numbers in either NJBBS or BRONXBBS will no longer have a
914 area code; the codes are stripped out for you.


The Other Big Reason To Use MUDD
--------------------------------

OK, MUDD merges dialing directories and cleans them up pretty nicely.  So what
is the other big reason to use MUDD?  Well, if you were reading closely, you
might remember I said that you could specify the same file for all the file
parameters of MUDD.  The reason to do this is to change the area code of a
given dialing directory.  When MUDD sees that the two source files are the
same file spec, it skips merging the files and just processes the area codes.
So here's the "piece de resistance" example:

MUDD p pcplus pcplus pcplus /201 /201 /914

...changes PCPLUS.DIR from a 201 based dialing directory to a 914 based one.



Other technical tidbits
-----------------------

o  If you have a dialing directory that has no local numbers (such as
   those provided with ProComm Plus), no need to panic.  If you need to
   fill out the parameters so that you can get that last area code, just
   enter /999 (or any other 3-digit number > 99).  Since there's no
   local numbers, it really doesn't matter!

o  MUDD will not work in a DOS shell out of ProComm Plus (the ALT-F4
   command).  Evidently, ProComm leaves the current dialing directory
   file open during a shell, so that any manipulation of it in a shell
   causes wierd and bad things to happen (lost clusters on disk being
   among them).  I have made it so that MUDD detects the ProComm DOS
   shell based on how ProComm redefines the DOS promtt ("Type EXIT to
   return to PROCOMM PLUS").  Having told you that, you can obviously
   defeat MUDD's safeguard of not running in the DOS shell, but I
   recommend that you please heed my warning.  At the very least, make
   sure the target directory is not the one currently open in ProComm.
   I hit this bug, and it's pretty nasty, especially when you realize
   that your dialing directory has been lost.

o  There is a thing called a "dialing command" in ProComm Plus.  You
   can see them by pressing P whilst in the "dial a number" command.  A
   dialing directory has a header which contains its dialing
   commands in them.  MUDD will take the dialing commands from the
   second source file (parameter <6> or its default) and put it into the
   target file (parameter <7>).

   I'm a long-time ProComm user, and didn't realize there was such a
   thing as "dialing commands" until I wrote MUDD.  I know lots of other
   ProComm users, and none of them use them, either.  If you use them,
   MUDD might not be the program for you since, right now, MUDD
   manipulates pure phone numbers, not numbers and dialing commands
   together.

Epilogue
--------

I hope you like MUDD.  I wrote it because I needed it (I work in NJ and I live
in NY, and I collect BBS numbers at home and at work), and the programs I
found in BBS land neither did what I wanted nor, even worse, worked.  I use
MUDD myself and was quite pleased when it first became functional.

This program could go a lot of ways.  Please tell me what you think is a good
one.  I will respond quickest and most directly to CompuServe EMail, followed
by GEnie EMail, Internet mail (directed to my CompuServe account), and good
old U.S. Mail.  You can call but, since I'm not Bill Gates and can't afford
it, don't expect a call back.  I hope that, if you're a user of MUDD, you must
be somewhat savvy about things like modems and EMail.  How did you get this
program, anyway!


Jokes I didn't use that I think you should know
-----------------------------------------------

o  Here's MUDD in your eye!
o  ...give your files a MUDD bath...
o  ...go soak your head in MUDD.
o  Don't be a stick in the MUDD.  Pay me!

Be forwarned: if you send me more jokes, it does NOT satisfy the BEERWARE
requirement.


Handy MUDD/BEERWARE Order Form (print one!)
-------------------------------------------


My name is: ______________________________________________________________

My address is: ___________________________________________________________

               ___________________________________________________________

My work phone number is: _________________________________________________

My home phone number is: _________________________________________________

What I do for a living: __________________________________________________

You can reach me electronically at: ______________________________________
(please, a national service like
CServe, GEnie, Internet, MCIMail)   ______________________________________

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give MUDD a: ____________________________________

On a scale of 1 to 10, I give ProComm a: _________________________________


I think ProComm is the best telecommunications program going: TRUE / FALSE

I think QModem is much better than ProComm: TRUE / FALSE / WHAT'S QMODEM?

I think BEERWARE is a good marketing concept: TRUE / FALSE / OFFENDED


When I sit in front of a computer, my colleagues might say, "look at
him/her!  What a..."

o  loser (would have better luck sitting in front of a haystack)
o  hopeless case (can't change a lightbulb)
o  dreamer (can't use a fax machine)
o  drone (uses computer because it's there)
o  hacker/digit-head (thinks pizza is haute cuisine)
o  computer weenie/nerd (thinks Mr. Spock is a sissy)
o  loser (makes Bill Gates look like Warren Beatty)


I got a laugh from this: TRUE / FALSE / MADE ME PAY YOU $15, DIDN'T IT!

-----

Please make check payable to Hugh M. McNally (I'm not a corporation yet).
Please mail to:

Hugh M. McNally
Reservoir Software
1 Cabin Ridge Road
Chappaqua, NY 10514


Remember, I promise to acknowledge the receipt of your money for MUDD.  I also
promise to make you aware of any upgrades to it.  Thank you so much for your
support!