MAIN PMDBM HELP SCREENWelcome to PMDBM, a Personal Message DataBase Management system. Theoverriding thrusts behind the development of PMDBM were: a) to provide a good Off Line Mail Reader (OLMR) b) which would easily allow the archival of select messages c) and properly manage those archived messages d) while being user-friendly, easy to use, yet extremely capable.I believe PMDBM has achieved these objectives and hope you agree.~This help system is available most any time by pressing F1, ? orby typing 'ALT-H'. Designed to allow you to easily tailor it foryour own use, the only sections you may not alter or remove are thesections dealing with licensing and the Help System's Copyright. Forthose interested, this system is available as a standalone product.About PMDBMIf you currently read your mail while on-line to your BBS, you areusing valuable connect time not to mention tying up other importantresources like your phone. And often you are obliged to read mailwhenever you finally get connected, as opposed to when you have thetime. And with file uploading and downloading and then mail reading,the connect time allotments aren't nearly long enough - but the goodnews is that there is a better way!! Most bulletin boards allow you toselectively download mail to your personal system so that you may thenread and reply to the messages at your leisure using an off-line mailreader like PMDBM!!~This section provides a brief overview of PMDBM's features along withproviding some related basic information on using OLMR's in general.While particularly useful to those new to OLMR's, even seasoned usersmay find some of the following categories of value!Key ConceptsThere are a few key concepts used within PMDBM. While all attemptshave been made to make PMDBM intuitive and easy to use, it doescontain a lot of features. Take a look through the followingsections, and if you need additional info then read through theappropriate sections in the documentation.Field EditingAt various points in PMDBM, you will be provided an opportunity toedit various fields. Sometimes you may not want to totally re-enterthe value but only to modify it slightly. If you type an alphanumeric key as the first character in the field, PMDBM will assumethat the field is to be replaced and will clear it. In order to justmodify the field, you would first need to type a non-alphanumericcharacter such as an arrow key, the INSERT, DELETE or END keys. Ifone of these is the first character typed, PMDBM will go into 'edit'mode and allow you to edit the contents of the field.Kill vs DeleteA 'Kill' will permanently remove a record from the MessageBase, aswill a 'Delete'. The difference between them is that the 'Kill' isimmediate whereas a 'Delete' is a delayed 'Kill'. The 'Delete' thusprovides the ability to recover the deleted record.Modes - New Mail vs Old MailMessages can have 1 of 2 different statuses. An 'Old' message is onewhich has been previously read and a 'New' message is one whichhasn't been.~PMDBM always operates in 1 of 3 modes. NEW mode displays onlymessages which were new at the start of the current session. Youshould note that after reading a 'New' message, PMDBM will changeit's status to 'Old'. But the message will still be accessible in'New' mode, until the current session is exited. OLD mode displaysonly messages which were 'Old' at the start of the current sessionand ALL mode displays messages regardless of status.MessageBase vs QWK packetsAn important concept to understand with PMDBM is that it has 2'sides'. While PMDBM allows you to read QWK packets, it also has aMessageBase of it's own. While there are some differences, using theMessageBase is very similar to using a QWK packet. Messages in QWKpackets are gone once the QWK packet is deleted. Not so with theMessageBase. Even after the QWK packet is deleted, the MessageBasewill continue to exist. So if a QWK packet contains any messagewhich you want to save or archive, you should 'save' or 'archive' itinto the MessageBase.Multiple MessageBasesPMDBM supports the use of multiple message bases. There are 2typical reasons why users choose to have more than 1 message base.~The primary reason is that each message base can only support 1BBS. Those using more than 1 BBS have to create a separate messagebase for each.~The second typical reason is that some users like to have separatemessage bases for certain groups of conferences, even though thesource of the conferences is the same BBS.CreatingIn order to create a new message base, one simply needs to startPMDBM or PMDCFG while specifying a non-existent CFG file name. Thisis done via the /F: switch. Alternately, you can select the 'Use NewCFG' menu option and type in a non-existent file name when providedwith the pick-list.~While you may use multiple configurations for a particular messagebase, I personally can see no reason why one would want to - thoughsome resourceful folks will likely come up with some <g>.~There is one key piece of information which MUST differ for eachconfiguration file if the intent is to create a new distinct messagebase, and that is the 'FILENAME' field. The only time this isn't arequirement is if neither of the PMDBM directories (the Main andMessage file Directories) are shared by message bases. If you usethe default 'MAILFILE' value in this field, PMDBM will automaticallyincrement a count in order to create a unique filename and append itto the end of the name. The only problem with the default names arethat they aren't very descriptive.Excluding ConferencesThose who choose to create multiple message bases for the same BBSwill need to setup 'Conference Exclusion' files. These files areMessageBase specific and tell PMDBM to totally ignore certainconferences when processing the QWK packets. The files have to benamed using the format 'filename'.XCL where 'filename' refers to thefilename stipulated in the FILENAME field of the configuration.Regarding the file format, each line in the file contains 1conference number, starting in the 1st column. If additionalinformation is also present on the line, then the number must befollowed by a 'space' as a separator. In order for PMDBM to findthe file, it must be located in the 'Main' directory for theparticular message base.IssuesThe most serious issue relating to multiple message bases is thepotential conflict if message bases share a common 'Filename'.It is recommended that the names be unique, even if the messagebasesuse separate directories. This will ensure that no conflicts canarise even at some future time.~PMDBM has built-in checks which ensure that packets from one BBScan not be used accidentally with a message base for another. Ofcourse, if you are using multiple message bases for the same BBS,you will have to ensure that the right information ends up in theright message base.~Another question with some significance is whether the 'Scratch'directories should be shared by message bases. This question isaddressed in more detail in the 'Directory Structures' section.~Other issues relate to the sharing/need to duplicate other files.In most cases, PMDBM looks for files in the 'Main' directory. Thatincludes the Carbon Copy/Key Contact lists, the tagline files andthe Header and Footer files.~On the one hand, using distinct directories for each message basewill ensure that Conference/BBS specific files will not be shared.This is often of relevance to the Carbon Copy lists, the Header andthe Footer files.~On the other hand, it may at times be preferable that the KeyContact lists and the tagline files be shared in order to avoidthe need for duplication.~At this point in time, there is no happy medium between the 2.Either all of these files are shared, or none of them and thedeciding factor is the directory name specified as the 'Main'directory.Directory StructuresEach PMDBM message base can use up to a maximum of 4 directories - 1for the .EXE files and 3 per message base. Only the Scratchdirectory MUST NOT be shared. The other 3 directories could actuallypoint to the same area - namely the Main directory may be used tohouse the .EXE files and the Message File directory. In this case,there would only need to be 2 directories used, Main and Scratch.~The 2 typical configurations most often used are depicted below~a) PMDBM ┌──────────┬───────────┬────────┬─────────┬──────────┐ │ │ │ │ │ │ MAIN1 <- (MESSAGE1) SCRATCH1 MAIN2 <- (MESSAGE2) SCRATCH2~In the above setup, the MESSAGE FILE area may be on a separatedrive partition. The brackets and arrows are used to indicate thatthe areas may not exist but may actually share the MAIN area. TheEXE (and associated files) are in their own area and at least 2additional areas (MAIN and SCRATCH) are used per message base.~A slightly simpler variation of the above would be to use asubdirectory of the 'Main' directories for the Scratch areas, asshown below: PMDBM ┌──────────┬──────────┬────────────┐ │ │ │ │ MAIN1 (MESSAGE1) MAIN2 (MESSAGE2) │ │ SCRATCH1 SCRATCH2~~~b) MAIN 1&2 PMDBM MESSAGE 1&2 │ SCRATCH2 ───────┴─────── SCRATCH1~This setup, on the other hand, has 1 scratch area for each messagebase but all other files share a directory in common. For mostusers, this is the simplest and the recommended setup.~While the 'Main' directory can house all permanent files it ispossible to use a separate directory for the .EXE's and theirrelated files (.CFG, .KEY, PMDSTRNG.DAT and the help files). Thosewho only use 1 message base may find it more appropriate to use 1area for all the files, while users of multiple message bases mightfind that placing the EXE (and related) files into a separate anddistinct area allows the various configurations to be more similar,and less confusing.~The reason for providing a separate area for the Message File isthat it can grow to be quite large, depending on specific usagerequirements, and users with multiple partitions may wish to placethe Message File on a different drive than the other files. If thefiles are all going to reside on the same drive, then there is noneed to provide a separate directory for the Message File.~When it comes to using multiple messagebases, each user will haveto decide whether to use directories in common or whether to havedistinct directories for each message base.~There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches. Themajor advantages to sharing are that everything can be found inone area, and all mail-associated files can be shared.~The sharing, though, can also be a disadvantage. It would mean thatBBS/Conference specific files would also be shared. So a desire tohave 2 Carbon Copy lists using the same name, but with differentcontents, would not be possible. Additionally, conference specificheader and footer files have the conference number as part of thefilename. In situations where more than 1 messagebase uses the sameconference number, only one of them could use a conference specificheader or footer for that particular conference number.~In the case of the 'Scratch' directory, it is recommended thateach MessageBase (or at least each BBS) be provided with it's own.When PMDBM unpacks a QWK packet for direct reading, it proceeds tobuild a packet-specific header (or index) file. As one readsmessages, this file is updated to indicate the status of themessages which have been read, replied to, saved or archived.If you should need to exit PMDBM prior to finishing completelywith the packet, you can always resume where you left off ifthe scratch directory is left intact. But the next time you opena QWK packet, or clear the scratch directory, that index file isdeleted. If you should then decide to re-read a particular packet,PMDBM will have to re-create a brand new index file for it, andnone of the previous usage information will exist in the newfile.~If you use more than 1 messagebase, the chances are that you willneed to switch from one to the other at some time, and reading a newQWK while in the new messagebase will cause an existing index fileto be overwritten if they share the scratch directory.Pointer vs Message ConferencesPMDBM supports 2 types of conferences - Pointer conferences andMessage conferences.~Message Conferences are your normal, run of the mill conferences.They contain a full copy of the message, including a completeheader. (If a message exists in more than 1 message conference, thenonly one copy of the message text is actually stored. But there is acomplete duplicate of the header).~Pointer Conferences on the other hand only contain a pointer to theactual message header. As such, the activities which can beperformed and the amount of information which can be presented islimited, until the actual message is retrieved.~While messages in a Message Conference may not exist in any otherconference (and usually don't), Messages in a Pointer ConferenceALWAYS exist elsewhere and the pointer conference just provides analternate path to the message.Pick ListsAt various times, PMDBM will display lists of items for yourselection. The items can be files, taglines or other types of lists.All these 'pick lists' have features in common.~One feature is that if the list contains a blank line which can beselected, then you can manually enter an option which isn't on thelist. In this way you can type in a manual tagline, or select a filewhich isn't displayed, etc.. Of course, if PMDBM is expecting afilename, you must ensure that what you type is a valid filename.~When a 'Pick list' of files is displayed subsequent to the firsttime, the foreground color of the previous selection will be red.Save vs ArchiveA save operation copies a message from a QWK packet into theMessageBase, as does an Archive. But where a Save causes the savedmessage to acquire an expiry date, an archive doesn't. Archivedmessages are therefore permanent and will never become deletedautomatically.~Whenever mass importing of messages into the MessageBase is donevia PMDBM, the messages so imported are 'saved' - not archived. Thereason for this is that Importing is usually done in lieu of readingQWK packets and the messages are then subsequently read. Messageswhich aren't explicitly archived should typically expire.~In the event that archiving the majority of messages in a conferenceis required, there is a mechanism which forces all messages in anyparticular conference to be automatically archived. To do this, youset the Conference expiry period to zero days, via the ConferenceSelection Screen.Key FeaturesPMDBM has a number of key features. Some are unique to PMDBM, andall are nicely implemented!! While PMDBM has literally TONS ofbells and whistles built in, which you'll be able to explore forsome time to come, the following items are some of the major ones.~(And though not listed below, let's not forget this help system!!)AliasesPMDBM allows creation of an ALIASES.LIS file in the MAIN directory.This file can contain alternate usernames which the user uses. Ifany messages in the current packet are addressed to one of thelisted aliases, PMDBM will treat those messages as personal mail andplace a copy in the Personal Mail Conference. (PMDBM will alsoautomatically import all messages to or from an alias, if the IMPORTPERSONAL flag is on. At this time, PMDBM does not beep when such amessage is being read.)~This feature may also be of use to those whose names are difficultto spell and often receive mail under a common misspelling or thosewhose usernames differ from their usual name (for example, a DouglasSmith could choose to add DOUG SMITH to his aliases file ).~Of course, if the mail door does not include a message in yourpacket PMDBM can not find it. Therefore this feature is only usefulwith PUBLIC messages or for Sysops who can configure their maildoors.~The format of the file is straight forward, 1 alias per line.ANSI SupportPMDBM provides built-in support for ANSI graphics and ANSI music.The use of an internal interpreter not only provides betterperfomance but also added security by disallowing ANSI commandswhich are used to re-define keys~At this time, there is no way to disable ANSI support via theconfiguration but provision has been made to disable them throughcommand line switches:~ /NA - disables all ansi support /NM - disable ansi music support~While both switches may be used together, there is no point todoing so since /NA implicitly disables music.Carbon Copy ListsThe Carbon Copy List function uses the same files as the Key ContactLists function. When used as a CarbonCopy List, PMDBM will send acopy of your message to every person on the list. If a conferencenumber is provided following a person's name, PMDBM will post themessage to that person in the specified conference. As with KeyContact Lists, the filename for a CarbonCopy List must end with theextension .CCL. PMDBM can support up to 400 .CCL files at any onetime and each list can contain up to 400 names.~There is a design flaw, if you will, in that Carbon Copy lists cannot use Conference Specific Header and footer files when messagesare being carboned to more than 1 conference. The only workaroundfor this at the time is to export 'Replies' then re-import themand re-edit any individual messages which need to be tailored.~CCL files must use the following format - with 1 user per line: The username is within the first 25 characters. Then next 10 characters must contain the conference number. Anything beyond the 35 column is ignored by PMDBM.Key Contact ListsKey Contact Lists are lists which contain the names of other BBSusers. PMDBM's use of these lists makes it easy to send messages topeople who you message with regularly - especially if their namesare hard to spell <g>. The filename for a Key Contact List mustalways end with the extension .CCL. (CCL stands for CarbonCopyList). PMDBM allows up to 400 .CCL files and each file can containup 400 names, 1 per line.~Based on the same principle as the CCL files, PMDBM also supportsUsenet Key Contact lists (*.CCU files). But these files containUsenet addresses, rather than usernames. You can save addresses tothe file easily and are provided access to them when posting aUsenet message addressed to Usenet Gateway.Message BasePMDBM's main feature is it's MessageBase. While most people onlyneed one, with PMDBM you can create 1 MessageBase for each BBS whichyou use. You can also create multiple MessageBases for the sameBBS!! A number of tools and commands are provided to allow you tomanage the MessageBase, and everything you do with PMDBM centresaround it.~Whenever mass importing of messages into the MessageBase is done viaPMDBM, the messages so imported are 'saved' - not archived. The reasonfor this is that Importing is usually done in lieu of reading QWKpackets and the messages are then subsequently read. Messages whicharen't explicitly archived should typically expire.~In the event that archiving the majority of messages in a conferenceis required, there is a mechanism which forces all messages in anyparticular conference to be automatically archived. To do this, youset the Conference expiry period to zero days, via the ConferenceSelection Screen.Packet scanningIf your QWK packets were compressed by PKZIP, PMDBM will scan allrelevant packets whenever a QWK related operation is requested (likeServices). Only those packets which contain the necessary files willbe displayed for selection.~If the 'Rename Packets' option is used, then PMDBM uses green'double arrows' next to items on the main menu, if the most recentQWK packet contains the files which these options require. Forexample, the arrow will be present next to 'View BBSNEWS' when themost recent QWK packet contains a BBSNEWS file.Reply HeaderThe process of filling in the reply header is a joy to use. Wherepossible, you need only toggle between options by using the arrowkeys. At other times, selection lists are provided as is access toyour own CCL and CCU lists!Sounds-Like searchesPMDBM allows the searching of messages. If you are searching fromthe Message Display screen, PMDBM will do a sounds-like test on theTO: and FROM: fields to determine if the names sound like any of thesearch parameters which you've entered!Swapping outPMDBM is able to 'swap' itself out of memory when external utilitiesneed to be run. This includes doing a DOS-SHELL, running PKZIP,invoking your list and editor utilities and the transparent runningof the routines in PMDCFG that PMDBM uses.~The swap works as follows:~1 - If enough UNUSED expanded memory exists, PMDBM will swap to it.2 - Otherwise, if Extended memory exists, PMDBM will swap to it.3 - Otherwise, if enough free disk space exists on the drive used for the 'Work' directory, PMDBM will swap there to a file called PMDBM.TMP. DO NOT DELETE THIS FILE WHILE SHELLED OUT!!4 - And lastly, PMDBM will attempt to swap to the drive which contains the MAIN directory.5 - Failures in all of the steps above will cause PMDBM to SHELL out without swapping.~The swapper can swap to exTENded memory, exPANded memory or disk.If the swapper does not have enough exPANded memory to swap to, itwill nonetheless allocate all that is available. The same holds truewith exTENded memory. All memory which is held by the swapper ISreleased when it reloads PMDBM or if the swapper terminatesabnormally.~Note that if the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, theISAM library will fail to de-allocate it's expanded memory. A rebootis typically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not loadan EMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).Tagline thiefPMDBM has an internal TagLine thief. With it you can steal any linefor a message and have it appended to the tagline file of yourchoice. PMDBM can support up to 400 tagline files, with up to 400lines per tagline file.Usenet Gateway SupportPMDBM provides special support for the Usenet/PCBoard Gateway.~This assumes that your BBS supports Usenet conferences and has thePCBoard/Usenet Gateway. If this isn't true, you neither need nor willyou be able to take advantage of these features.Header/Footer filesWhen replying to or sending a message, you have 2 opportunities toedit the Header information, once before you create the reply andonce after. During the FIRST opportunity, selecting USENET GATEWAYfor the TO: field will (as with the Usenet) cause the HEADER.NET andFOOTER.NET files to be used, instead of the default HEADER andFOOTER files. Of course, if you have a conference specific footer orheader file, for the current conference, then these will takeprecedence over the HEADER.NET and FOOTER.NET files.Usenet MessagesYou can send a message in one of 2 ways and in both cases, themessage must end up in a Usenet conference which supports theparticular mode you have chosen.~The first method is used for sending public news and can only beused in those Usenet conferences where the newsgroup supports publicnews. You first need to set the Usenet flag in theEcho/No-echo/Usenet field. This inserts the string UN: at thebeginning of the Subject. While I don't believe it really matters, youmay want to set the TO: field to ALL on such messages and make themessage Public. On such a message, there is no usenet user address andtherefore no TO: line at the beginning of the message.~With the second, you can post private mail to the "Usenet Replies"conference (104 on CRS), or any Usenet Conference, with the messageaddressed to USENET GATEWAY. Since this mechanism sends private mailonly, PMDBM defaults the message status to private when you selectUSENET GATEWAY - though you may change it.~In order for a private Usenet message to reach the intendedrecipient, you must have the Usenet address of the intendedrecipient on the first message line as follows:~----------------------------- top of message -----------------------to: les.gyurky@canrem.uucp~----------------------------- message body starts here -------------~You will note that there is a space after the TO: and a BLANK LINEafter the address. Both of these are mandatory. Since PMDBM willusually insert these for you, you generally will only need to ensurethat you do not accidentally change it. The HEADER or HEADER.NETinfo will be inserted after the two required lines.Usenet Key ContactsThis is another powerful feature built into PMDBM. While you arereading messages in a Usenet Conference, using the 'U' commandallows you to capture the USENET address of the message sender andsave it a *.CCU file.~Based on the same principle as the CCL files, these files (*.CCU)contain Usenet addresses, rather than usernames. You can saveaddresses to the file easily and are provided access to them whenposting a Usenet message addressed to Usenet Gateway.~When creating a message or a reply, if any *.CCU files exist andyou select USENET GATEWAY as the recipient, PMDBM will allow you toselect one of these files. Since these files are Key Contact filescontaining Usenet user addresses, you can then pick one address fromthe selected file. Apart from using this address for symboltranslation in the HEADER.NET file (a sample HEADER.NET was includedwith PMDBM), PMDBM will also insert the line "to: +address+"followed by a blank line (as per Usenet/Gateway requirements). If noCCU files exist, then the address inserted will be the Usenetaddress of the message sender, if PMDBM is able to determine what itis.~A key point to remember in this regard is: If you want to use aname from a CCU file, you MUST do an edit on the TO: field in theMessage Header and pick USENET GATEWAY from the list of selections.THIS IS TRUE EVEN IF THE MESSAGE IS ALREADY ADDRESSED TO USENETGATEWAY!! And you MUST do it during the first Header Edit, prior toactually editing the message!~If for any reason you don't want the message to be addressed toUSENET GATEWAY you can change the value of the TO: field afteryou've selected the appropriate Usenet address or during the secondheader edit.Special Usenet SymbolsThe following symbols are provided specifically for Usenet users.They will be translated if found in the header file, the footer fileor the tagline.~ @UAddress - Address to whom the message will be sent!! First choice will be address selected from a .CCU file. If a CCU isn't used, then it will translate the same as @UFrom@ @UFrom@ - sender of USENET Message being responded to @UTo@ - Recipient of USENET Message (typically ALL, or you) @UIdent@ - USENET message identification @USubj@ - USENET subject @UGroup@ - USENET newsgroup to which the original message had been posted.Usenet FlagThis flag is used to indicate that the message is a Usenet message.It is not required when the message is addressed to Usenet Gateway.In order to support public Usenet messages, checks the first 3characters of the Subject string looking for the letters "UN:". Ifit finds them, then it considers the message to be a usenet message.~Under PMDBM, you can set this flag by toggling the three-wayECHO/NON-ECHOED/USENET flag on the Reply Header edit screen.What you needBefore you can do anything, you need to have a few things. First, ofcourse, you'll need access to a bulletin board. This entailscontacting a local sysop and arranging for a user account, often for aregistration fee. The fee varies depending of the size of the board,the number of services offered and included with membership, and thephilosophy of the sysop.The communicationsIn order to communicate with a BBS (Bulletin Board System) you willneed special hardware and software. On the hardware side, yourequire either an internal 'modem' or an external one which connectsto a serial communications port on your computer.~Additionally, you will require communications software which willallow you to use your modem to call the BBS and to 'download' and'upload' files between your system and the BBS. 'Downloading' is thename given the process of transferring data from the BBS to yoursystem and 'uploading' is the reverse, transferring data from yoursystem to the BBS.The mail packetAny off-line reader, including PMDBM, needs to have a downloadedmail 'packet' available to it before the reader itself can be ofuse. So, before you can use PMDBM you will have to download justsuch a packet.~There are several different Mail systems in use by BBSes. Currently,this reader only supports those which use the QMAIL DOOR or providemail packets conforming to QMAIL's QWK format.~I've used the term DOOR above, and if you are going to be involvedwith BBSing, you will hear it mentioned often. When you log onto aBBS, you are communicating with the BBS software and it willinitially be in control of your session. But there are often manyfeatures or capabilities that a BBS offers which are not provided aspart of the BBS software. In such a case, the BBS software must'shell out' or pass control of your session to another piece ofsoftware. In effect, you temporarily 'leave' or 'exit' the BBSsoftware and I suspect this is why this mechanism is called a'DOOR'.~The steps needed to download a packet vary from BBS to BBS but yourSysop should be able to provide you with all the information youneed. At any rate, once you've logged in, the first step is findingand 'Opening' the QMAIL door. Once you enter the Door, QMAIL firstputs new QMAIL users into 'Configure' mode and provides the abilityto select certain options. All of the selections can be changedlater, and usually the default values will serve the new user quiteadequately. One key factor is that you do have to select at leastone conference from which you wish to download mail messages. Mailwill only be collected from selected conferences, so if you don'tselect any conferences, you will only receive mail from thoseconferences which your Sysop has defined as defaults, if any.~Once you've configured the Door, you are ready to download yourfirst packet and the process is similar to downloading any otherfile. It's at this point, after downloading and logging off the BBS,that you are ready to put PMDBM to use.Other utilitiesWhen you receive them, QWK packets arrive in compressed form. Youwill require the appropriate de-compression utility to unpack it.You will also require a compression utility to pack your repliesbefore they can be uploaded to your BBS. Which of these utilitiesyou use depends on which ones your BBS supports, and which oneyou've selected in your QMAIL configuration. PKUNZIP and PKZIP arethe most popular/common at this time.~In order to create replies and edit other files you will requirethe use of an editor.~While you can use your editor to view files as well, it isgenerally safer and more convenient to use one of the popular listutilities.~A utility which has just become available is called HEADLINER. Thisutility has the ability to process certain services and BBSNEWSfiles in an organized manner. At the time of writing, HEADLINER isstill new, under development and available only the Torontoarea, but keep your eye out for it. It will make your use ofservices much easier!General InformationThis section provides some general information, which most seasonedBBSers would already be familiar with. It particularly deals withconcepts which might normally be considered 'common knowledge',primarily with regard to BBS mail and off-line mail readers. It is notcomprehensive and is intended to serve only as a brief introductionfor the user who is new to this form of communication.BBS Short HandIf you are involved (or are going to become involved) with BBSing,there are a few acronyms and symbols which it will behove you toknow. Included here by me, but compiled by countless unnamed othersis a list of the more popular gems for your edification: AFAIC - As Far As I'm Concerned AISI - As I See It ASAFP - As Soon As Friggin' Possible ASAP - As Soon As Possible ANFAWFOS- And Now For A Word From Our Sponsor AWGTHTGTTA- Are We Going To Have To Go Through This Again? AWGTHTGTATA- Are We Going To Have To Go Through ALL This Again? B4 - Before BCNU - Be Seeing You BNF - Big Name Fan BOT - Back On Topic BTW - By The Way BTWBO - Be There With Bells On CIAO - Goodbye (Italian) CUL - Catch You Later CUL - See You Later CUL8R - See You Later CWYL - Chat With You Later FTL - Faster Than Light DILLIGAD- Do I Look Like I Give A Darn?! FTASB - Faster Than A Speeding Bullet FUBAR - Fouled Up Beyond All Repair FUBB - Fouled Up Beyond Belief FWIW - For What It's Worth FYI - For Your Information GIWIST - Gee, I Wish I'd Said That GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out HAK - Hugs And Kisses HHOK - Ha, Ha, Only Kidding HHO 1/2 K- Ha, Ha, Only Half Kidding HTH - Hope this Helps! HUA - Heads Up, Ace IAC - In Any Case IANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer IBTD - I Beg To Differ IITYWTMWYKM - If I Tell You What This Means Will You Kiss Me? IITYWIMWYBMAD- If I Tell You What It Means Will You Buy Me A Drink? ILSHIBAMF - I Laughed So Hard I Broke All My Furniture! LLTA - Lots and Lots of Thunderous (or Thundering) Applause IIWM - If It Were Me (Mine) IMO - In My Opinion IMNSHO - In My Not So Humble Opinion IMHO - In My Humble Opinion INPO - In No Particular Order IOW - In Other Words KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid LA - Laughing Aloud LOL - Laughing Out Loud LTIP - Laughing Til' I Puke MTFBWY - May The Force Be With You NFW - No Friggin' Way!! OATUS - On A Totally Unrelated Subject OAUS - On An Unrelated Subject OBTW - Oh, By The Way OTOH - On The Other Hand OTOOH - On The Other Other Hand OTTOMH- Off The Top Of My Head OLMR - Off-Line Mail Reader ONNA - Oh No, Not Again ONNTA - Oh No, Not This Again OWTTE - Or Words To That Effect OOTC - Obligatory On-Topic Comment POV - Point Of View PMDBM - The Best D*** OLMR Around PMIGBOM - Put Mind In Gear, Before Opening Mouth ROTFL - Rolling On The Floor Laughing ROFL - Rolling On Floor Laughing! ROTF - Rolling On The Floor RTFM - Read The Friggin' Manual! RSN - Real Soon Now ROFLGO - Rolling On Floor Laughing Guts Out! ROFLASTC- Rolling On Floor Laughing And Scaring The Cat! ROFLMAO - Rolling On Floor Laughing My A** Off RTFMA - Read The Friggin' Manual, Again RYFM - Read Your Friggin' Manual! SNAFU - Situation Normal, All Fouled Up SICS - Sitting In Chair Snickering SWAG - Super Wild A** Guess SnailMail - The U.S. Postal Service SOL - S*** Out Of Luck THANX - Thanks TNX - Thanks TTYAWFN - Talk To You A While From Now TTFN - Ta Ta For Now TYCLO - Turn Your CAPS LOCK Off TTYL - Talk To You Later WTTM - Without Thinking Too Much WAG - Wild A** Guess WNOHGB - Where No One Has Gone Before WT - Without Thinking TANSTAAFL- There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch SAPFU - Surpassing All Previous 'Foul' Ups TARFU - Things Are _Really_ Fouled Up RYS - Read Your Screen BBL: - Be Back Later BBIAB:- Be Back In A BitHeader/Footer filesMost off-line mail readers provide the user with the ability toautomatically include a 'header' file and a 'footer' or 'signature'file in any new message which the user creates. The reason thatthese files are useful is that they usually allow the user to usesymbols or variables which the reader translates based on thecontents of the message being replied to.One example of what the contents of a header file might be is:~ RE: Message @MsgNum@ entered on @MSGDATE@ by @FROM@ to @TO@ «∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»∙«∙»~The above example contains the following symbols: @MsgNum@ - PMDBM translates this to the message number of the message being replied to. @MSGDATE@ - This will be translated to the date of the original message. @FROM@ - Will be translated into the name of the message sender @TO@ - Will be translated to the original addressee~The footer file provides additional capabilities. As can be seen,both types of files allow the automatic insertion of information intothe messages, and some of the information can be variable.~There is a design flaw, if you will, in that Carbon Copy lists cannot use Conference specific Header and footer files when messagesare being carboned to more than 1 conference. The only workaroundfor this at the time is to export 'Replies' then re-import themand re-edit any individual messages which need to be tailored.Trouble-ShootingIt is very difficult to resolve problems without good detailedinformation, and getting it requires good observation and anattention to detail. Familiarity with the product's normalcharacteristics is also valuable.~As a rule, when a series of errors occur, it is the VERY FIRSTerror message which is the most relevant. While subsequent errorsmay also provide valuable leads, they are more than likely caused bythe initial error and can actually mislead the investigation if theinitial error isn't noted.~If an operation which had previously worked well suddenly fails,the first question one should immediately ask is: What has changed?It is surprising how often the answer to this question helps tonarrow in on the cause of the problem.~Often, problems are caused by external factors which are easy tocheck, though often aren't. Verifying free resources, like memory,disk space and file handles are a few of the first things to check.On systems which have TSR's or non-essential drivers loaded, animportant investigative step can sometimes be the striping down ofthe CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files so they include only the bareessentials. If the problem goes away, items can be added back tothese files individually till the reason - or at least the catalyst- for the conflict is identified.~There are also a few steps one can take to help avoid difficultproblems. For example, whenever a change is instituted, it should bechecked as thoroughly as possible. If, let's say, you change yourlist utility in PMDBM's configuration, you should invoke at leastone option which uses 'list' - especially if it's a differentproduct. By checking it out at the time, when the details of thechange are still vivid, one can avoid a difficult diagnostic sessionin the future, when memories have faded or certain actions have evenbeen forgotten.Reporting ProblemsWhen you've tried to trouble shoot the problem, but have run into awall or are certain that the problem is internal to a product, thefirst thing to do is compile all the relevant information you can.In PMDBM, for example, you can print of a copy of the configuration.~If you are running under Desqview, Windows or some otherenvironment, pull together as much specific information as youreasonably can. In this last case, see if the problem can berecreated outside of the environment and report the findings ofyour investigation.~Try to recall all the specific actions which were taken prior to theoccurance of the problem and jot them down. Include as much of thisinformation as you feel might be helpful - it is far better to providetoo much detail as opposed to not providing enough.~If the problem is caused by specific data (a specific QWK packet,or a specific BBSNEWS file), the second thing to do is save a copyof the data in case it can prove to be of use in troubleshooting theproblem.~Then boldly go forth and report the problem!~Now, if you are unable to get any additional information, REPORT THEPROBLEM anyway. If you experienced a problem, it is quite possiblethat others may experience it as well. While the information you havemay not on it's own be enough to determine the cause of the problem,it may be just the key that is needed to tie other tid bits together,making it possible to unravel a perplexing problem! As far as PMDBMis concerned, you should always feel free to report any problem youencounter. It is possible that I may not be able to solve it, butyou can certainly count on my giving it my best. (I do prefer mail asopposed to phone calls, for any but the most urgent problems. From myperspective, a problem is only urgent if you are unable to use PMDBMbecause of it).Support FilesPMDBM's support files (*.CFG, PMDSTRNG.DAT, PMDBM.KEY andPMDCFG.EXE) all have to reside in the same directory as PMDBM.EXE.In this way both PMDBM.EXE and PMDCFG.EXE will determine theirrunning-directory and automatically look there for the supportfiles.~ PMDBM creates/uses the following files: (message dir) *.FIL - MessageBase message file (main dir) *.HDR - MessageBase Header file " *.RPL - Storage of replies, prior to export " *.CCL - Carbon Copy Lists (Key Contact Lists) " *.CCU - Usenet Key Contact Lists " bbsname.CLN - Cleanup Batch files processing QWK packets " *.DEL - Record of deleted space in message file " *.XCL - Conference Exclude files (See 'CONFERENCES') " REPLY.* - Temp files during reply/message creation " ALIASES.LIS - List of alternate usernames " HDR*. - Conference specific Header files " FTR*. - Conference specific Footer files " FOOTER.NET - Usenet Network Footer file " HEADER.NET - Usenet Network Header file " FOOTER. - General Footer file " HEADER. - General Header file " *.TAG - Tagline Files (exe dir) *.CFG - Configuration files " PMDSTRNG.DAT - Datafile containing strings for PMDBM " PMDBMHLP.IDX - Index to help file " PMDBMHLP.DAT - Help file " PREPMD.BAT - Will be executed by PMDBM on startup " POSTPMD.BAT - Will be executed by PMDBM prior to exit (misc. dir) *.TMP - Temporary swap filesSmilies Subject: SMILIES From: kjohnson@surya.waterloo.edu (Kevin Johnson) Keywords: smirk~The Unofficial Smilie Dictionary--------------------------------:-) Your basic smilie. This smilie is used to inflect a sarcastic or joking statement since we can't hear voice inflection over Unix.;-) Winky smilie. User just made a flirtatious and/or sarcastic remark. More of a "don't hit me for what I just said" smilie.:-( Frowning smilie. User did not like that last statement or is upset or depressed about something.:-I Indifferent smilie. Better than a Frowning smilie but not quite as good as a happy smilie:-> User just made a really biting sarcastic remark. Worse than a :-).>:-> User just made a really devilish remark.>;-> Winky and devil combined. A very lewd remark was just made.~Those are the basic ones...Here are some somewhat less common ones:(-: User is left handed%-) User has been staring at a green screen for 15 hours straight:*) User is drunk[:] User is a robot8-) User is wearing sunglassesB:-) Sunglasses on head::-) User wears normal glassesB-) User wears horn-rimmed glasses:-{) User has a mustache:-{} User wears lipstick{:-) User wears a toupee}:-( Toupee in an updraft:-[ User is a Vampire:-E Bucktoothed vampire:-F Bucktoothed vampire with one tooth missing:-7 User just made a wry statement:-* User just ate something sour:-)~ User drools:-~) User has a cold:'-( User is crying:'-) User is so happy, s/he is crying:-@ User is screaming:-# User wears braces:^) User has a broken nose:v) User has a broken nose, but it's the other way:_) User's nose is sliding off of his face:<) User is from an Ivy League School:-& User is tongue tied.=:-) User is a hosehead-:-) User is a punk rocker-:-( (real punk rockers don't smile):=) User has two noses+-:-) User is the Pope or holds some other religious office`:-) User shaved one of his eyebrows off this morning,:-) Same thing...other side|-I User is asleep|-O User is yawning/snoring:-Q User is a smoker:-? User smokes a pipeO-) Megaton Man On Patrol! (or else, user is a scuba diver)RequirementsAt a minimum, PMDBM requires a 286 or better with at least 64k ofexpanded memory.VideoAlthough not true with earlier versions, PMDBM no longer has anyspecial video requirements.Disk spaceAt the very least, PMDBM needs a minimum of 800,000 bytes of diskspace for the program and it's files. This requirement will grow asthe number of messages in PMDBM's MessageBase increases. There mustalso be enough space available for the mail packets, and to unpackthem. While a packet is being read, PMDBM will require sometemporary disk space to create it's index. Typically, this is about25% of the size of the MESSAGES.DAT file (in the mail packet) - butnever less than 95,000 bytes. PMDBM does not make use of the NDXfiles in the QWK packet. If none of the other packages you use needthem either, you may freely remove them from the .QWK packet.MemoryIn order to ensure enough free memory for your archiver/de-archiverand your editor, you should typically have over 500k of free basememory when starting PMDBM. The actual amount needed will varydepending on the editor, list utility and Archiver/de-archiver used.~PMDBM.EXE uses over 300k, for code space and between 80 and 100kfor data. PMDBM requires more base memory while creating a replythan at any other time. You can test to see if you have enough freememory by displaying your full list of conferences (Toggle-Display)and then attempting to enter a reply. If this fails, you need tofree memory, or, in a multi-tasker like DesqView, allocate more toPMDBM. PMDBM will also make use of up to 1.2M of Expanded memorywhich if available can significantly enhance performance. The amountof base memory you need can be significantly less, if you have 1.2Mof expanded and if you use PMDBM's Swapping option. By using it, youallow PMDBM to unload itself from memory prior to invoking otherutilities.~If the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, the ISAMlibrary will fail to deallocate it's expanded memory. A reboot istypically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not load anEMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).Using DESQVIEW (tm)PMDBM is DV aware and will run in a small window. When running underDV, PMDBM will give up its timeslices while waiting for keyboardinput. PMDBM works extremely well under DesqView, given that it hasenough memory resources. You should set the Max Expanded Memoryvalue on the advanced options screen, otherwise PMDBM will grab allthe expanded memory it can use, up to 2MB. You should provide atleast 540k of base memory and 256k of expanded memory to thisversion of PMDBM. DV users should load DVANSI.COM. While configuringDV shouldn't pose any problems, the 'ALLOW CLOSE WINDOW' option MUSTbe set to NO (if the Window is closed abnormally, there is a chancethat file corruption may occur). Normally, PMDBM does not do directscreen writes. But at key times it does temporarily save and restorevideo memory for the sake of speed. This has been implemented in amanner where it will never happen when PMDBM is running in thebackground. It will only happen directly in response to user input -when display performance is important - and not while runningactivities, like importing a large packet, in the background.Because of the way this is implemented, it is not necessary to set'Writes directly to screen' to 'Y', in fact it is recommended thatthis be set to 'N'.Pre and Post processingOf primary benefit to Desqview users, PMDBM support 2 specialbatch files: PrePMD.BAT and PostPMD.BAT. If these files existin the same directory as PMDBM.EXE, then PMDBM will execute them.The PrePMD.BAT will be executed immediately on startup andPostPMD.BAT will be executed just before exiting.~When Desqview is given the name of a BAT file to execute, it hasto fire up an extra copy of COMMAND.COM. When given the name of an.EXE or .COM, then this isn't necessary - thus reducing memoryusage. Using these 2 batch files, DV users can do pre and postPMDBM processing and still avoid the need to use a .BAT file inorder to run PMDBM.MICROSOFT WINDOWS (tm)PMDBM is being used by several registered users on DOS 5.0 systemsunder Windows 3.0. As with DesqView, Windows must provide PMDBM withExpanded Memory, set in the PIF file.~ The following guidelines for the PIF provide a starting point: KB Required: 550 KB Desired: 640 EMS Memory: KB Required 1024 KB Desired: 2048 Video memory: Text.~While performance under Windows is slower than under DOS, it isapparently quite acceptable with a 16Mhz 386sx or better.~I've successfully run PMDBM under Windows on a 386sx with 2meg ofmemory using Real Mode.QMAIL DOOR CONFIGURATIONThe QMAIL door has 2 options which you may wish to enable.~1) Option 17 enables or disables the ability to download information on all Conferences on the BBS. My suggestion is that you do 1 download with Option 17 OFF so that all conferences get entered into the permanent MessageBase. You may then enable Option 17 so that you only download info on those conferences which you've selected. Because a record for all Conferences will now exist in the MessageBase, you will have the ability to enter messages in any conference, even those which you do not normally download. You can selectively delete those conferences from the MessageBase which you know you will never use.~2) You may also wish to configure QMAIL so that your replies are sent back to you. In this way, you will be able to archive threads which include your replies. (This is option 1 in the QMAIL door)~3) Often, you also have the ability to select an archiver and a download protocol. It is up to you which of these you use, but you will need to provide/have compatible utilities on your system as well.~4) Once you have PMDBM set up, you can use the Configure command (ALT-C) on PMDBM's Conference Selection Screen to change certain aspects of your QMAIL configuration. This is explained in more detail under the Conference Selection Screen's help.About HELPThis help facility is designed in 'layers'. Each layer can providehelp text and if more detailed help is available, additional itemswill be displayed after the text.The additional items can be selected by using the arrow keys, or bytyping in the first few characters of the option name. Hitting <Enter>will select your choice.~Hitting <ESC> will take you back to the previous level. If you arealready at the top, then <ESC> will take you out. Once you havereached the deepest layer in a specific branch, you have 2 options;hitting <ESC> to back up, or hitting enter to exit.~For those interested, this help system is available as astandalone product.Copyright 1991PLEASE NOTE: While this help file is Copyrighted, REGISTERED PMDBMusers may modify it. The only sections you may not alter or removeare those dealing with licensing and this Copyright section. You mayalso distribute the help file in modified form, but YOU MUST providea copy of the original in any distribution of PMDBM, as per thelicense agreement. All rights to the original file contents, areretained by the author.Help TopicsAt most points, PMDBM will attempt to provide context sensitive helpbased on the screen which is being displayed. In order for PMDBM todo so, it looks for and recognizes the TOPICS which the distributedfile contains. If the topics are modified such that PMDBM is unableto find them, it will display the help for the nearest previouslevel. Do take care not to modify those Topics which are used toprovide Context sensitive help. You will recognize these because theTopic will be preceded by a tilde character (~). The tilde isn'tnecessary and is ignored and stripped by the help function. It isprovided solely to indicate that the topic is/can be used forproviding context sensitive help.Modifying HelpYou can modify PMDBM's help by editing PMDBM.HLP with any texteditor. To do so, you will first need to generate a PMDBM.HLP filefrom within PMDCFG. Columns 1 and 2 are reserved for the numericdata that tells the HELP system where a new layer starts, and whatlayer it is. When modifying PMDBM.HLP, care must therefore be takento ensure that help text is not placed in columns 1 and 2. AfterPMDBM.HLP is modified, it will have to be converted for use withPMDBM. This is done by running PMDCFG and selecting the 'RebuildHelp' option from PMDCFG's main menu. It will then use PMDBM.HLP tocreate the files PMDBMHLP.TXT and PMDBMHLP.IDX, which are the filesthat PMDBM actually uses. The numbers in Columns 1 and 2 are alsosignificant. While you can change the content of any item, youshould not change the sequence of the numbering or add items usingthe numbers 1 or 2 since these 2 numbers relate directly to thevarious screen within PMDBM.~On a non-numbered line, if the 3rd column contains a TILDE (~),PMDBM will treat that as the start of a new paragraph. This providesthe ability to format the help screen in a more appealing manner.While modifying the PMDBM.HLP file, you may insert blank lines inthe file to make it more legible. PMDBM will ignore any blank linesduring it's processing.Ordering PMDBMWhen ordering, please do send along a copy of the order form. A copyof the form can be printed via the 'P' command from the main PMDBMmenu. You can print directly to a printer or to a disk file. If youwish, you can include the form in a message by printing it to the'Reply Include File', when presented with the choice of destinations.Having done this, the next new message or reply which you create wouldcontain a copy of the order form.~ Please make your cheque or money order (Canadian currency preferred) payable to: Les Gyurky~ Mail to: Les Gyurky 1193 Woodbine Avenue Toronto Ontario. M4C 4E1~Your order will be processed as quickly as possible. On receipt ofyour order, you will be contacted so that a personal key file can betransferred to you electronically. The purchase of the license allowsyou to use PMDBM. You will not receive a copy on diskette unless youorder the Diskette Package. You may call (416) 421-6104 if for somereason you are not contacted after a reasonable amount of time.Price Schedule~1) Single user license ........................... $ 34.00 Canadian 30.00 US~2) Diskette Package .............................. $ 5.00 Canadian (note: only $2.00 at time of registration) $ 4.50 US~3) Redesignation of Licensed user ................ $ 2.00 Canadian $ 2.00 US~4) Non-registered copy, on disk, for evaluation .. $ 7.00 Canadian (C$5.00 / $4.50US refundable on registration, $ 6.50 US unless registration includes an upgrade.) $ FREE if downloaded from a BBS.~Please note, while prices are subject to change, these prices areindicative of my pricing policies and increases will only be areflection of my costs.~As a rule, users 'upgrade' by downloading the most recent versionfrom their local BBS. The 'Diskette Package' is provided for userswho prefer to receive a copy of the latest version on diskette.Special pricing can be arranged for users wishing to purchasemultiple diskette copies.~Quantity prices are available to Corporate users and Sysops.Pricing would reflect the quantities involved and the level ofsupport required. I can be contacted via E-mail in: the IBM orDesqView conferences on NANET the IBM or DesqView conferences onRIME the Telix conference on Intelec"SHARE"ware PolicyIf you are a registered PMDBM user, PMDBM generates a file calledEVAL.KEY. If this file is used with an unregistered version ofPMDBM, it causes a special serial number to be displayed. Thisnumber is traceable to you, the registered user. Anytime that a newuser registers and indicates that the copy they evaluated originatedwith you, you will receive 1 'credit'.~For every 5 credits you accumulate, you will receive a "share" ofthe proceeds - namely a cheque for C$15 CASH from the author ofPMDBM!! The only catches are that the registering user must registerdirectly with the author, and this offer is not valid with any otheroffer, so the new user must pay the regular undiscountedregistration price (and, of course, their cheque must not bounce).~Your special serial number will automatically be included on theorder form if the new user uses the 'P'rint Order Form function fromwithin PMDBM.Command Line SwitchesPMDBM has a number of commandline switches. The switches are notusually required, and the functions which they provide can either beconfigured permanently or can be selected once PMDBM is running. Theswitches may be specified in either lower case or upper case.~/CONFIG - Config. Tells PMDBM to enter CONFIG immediately on startup. This is especially useful if a mistake had been made previously and PMDBM won't start properly.~/DS: - Default Sort. By default, PMDBM uses the Subject field as the primary sortkey, with the message number being the secondary key. This switch tells PMDBM to use an alternate field as the primary key. Valid parameters to the switch are:~ /ds:NUMBER - tells PMDBM to sort on message number /ds:TO - tells PMDBM to sort on message recipient /ds:FROM - tells PMDBM to sort on message sender~ Except in the case of NUMBER, the message number is used as the secondary sort key.~/E - Export. Causes PMDBM to automatically export replies on exit. This is true even when /X is specified.~/F: - File. Provide a CONFIG file name for PMDBM to use. If this switch is not used, then PMDBM will use the default name of MAILFILE.CFG. The format for using this switch is: /F:filename[.ext] where [.ext] can be omitted, in which case it defaults to .CFG. If you want to specify a file which does not have an extension, place a period after the filename.~/I: - Import. Causes the specified file to be imported prior to the menu being displayed. The format for using this switch is: /I:filename[.ext] where [.ext] can be omitted, in which case it defaults to .QWK. If you want to specify a file which does not have an extension, place a period after the filename.~ The import operation occurs BEFORE other automated processing is done by PMDBM. This means that even if the RENAME PACKETS option is enabled, the QWK packet names will change AFTER the specified file is Imported, not before.~ When combined with the /X switch, this switch allows PMDBM to import a QWK packet in batch mode.~/M - Monochrome. Tells PMDBM to run in Monochrome mode. This is the one switch which may be necessary when you first run PMDBM. Once running, PMDBM can be configured to start in Monochrome mode by default.~/NS - No Swapping. Tells PMDBM not to SWAP itself out of memory when a DOS Shell is activated. PMDBM activates DOS shells at various times, usually when firing up one of the external utilities which have been configured in the configuration.~/NA - No Ansi. Tells PMDBM to disable all ANSI support. When this switch is used PMDBM will display messages with all ANSI control codes stripped out of the message. This switch implicitly disables ANSI music.~/NM - No Music. Tells PMDBM to disable ANSI music.~/X - Exit. Causes PMDBM to exit to DOS prior to displaying the Main Menu. This switch can be of use in several ways. For example, it can be used in conjunction with the /I: switch to allow importing of QWK a packet in Batch mode. Or it could be used with the /CONFIG switch will allow modification of the configuration and then exiting back to DOS.~ This switch also disables most I/O to the screen. In the case of errors, PMDBM will update/create a PMDBAT.LOG file in which to record events.~ Please note that if PrePMD.BAT and/or PostPMD.BAT exist, because they are the very first and very last things which PMDBM checks for (respectively), they will processed.~ Any automated processing which is normally done by PMDBM prior to the menu being displayed will also occur (such as the AutoImporting, packet renaming and cleanup etc). Of course, the processing which is done is dependant on the specific configuration options.~ On the other hand, with the exception of PostPMD.BAT processing, post-menu processing is bypassed, such as the cleanup of the scratch directory. Note that exporting of replies is also bypassed unless the /E switch is used.LicensingThis product and the attached documentation are the Copyrightedintellectual property of Les Gyurky and all rights are reserved.~Use or distribution of this product indicates acceptance of ALLLicensing terms.~For detailed information, please see the license agreement includedin the documentation.ModificationsNo changes may be made to any of the files in this package unlessotherwise indicated within the documentation for user configurablefiles. In no case may the program code be disassembled or modified!Right to useNon-registered users of PMDBM are granted the right to use it freeof charge, without a key file, for the purpose of evaluation, until areasonable evaluation period has elapsed. In no event should thisexceed 14 days.~This is a personal mail reader and registration grants registeredusers the right to use this product without limiting such use toany one system. You may freely use it at home and/or the office orelsewhere. But, no person other than the registered or designated usermay use the product and the registered user is responsible forensuring compliance with the licensing terms. Not withstanding anyother legal claims which the copyright holder may be entitled to, theregistered user automatically forfeits the right to use this productshould the terms of this license not be upheld.DistributionThe program may be freely copied and distributed in order thatothers be given the opportunity to evaluate the product. All of thefiles in the original distribution packet must be copied includingall documentation and notices WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE KEY FILE,EVEN IF ONE WAS INCLUDED. The Key File may not be distributed underany circumstances. Each key file is unique and can only be provided,on registration, by the author. No charge may be made for suchdistribution.~No fee WHATSOEVER may be charged for the distribution of thisproduct except by special arrangement with the author. Anyone payingsuch fees is asked to contact the author. Legal action will betaken. Anyone wishing to charge for distribution of this productshould contact the author and a special version will be providedafter appropriate royalties are established. While this restrictiondoes not apply to membership fees charged by BBS systems, no fee maybe charged explicitly for the downloading of this product.LiabilityThe author accepts no Liability for any damage which may occurthrough the use of this product. While the programs have been fullytested by a number of people, there nonetheless exists thepossibility that they may cause problems on other configurations.The user runs them at their own risk and must accept fullresponsibility for any problems which they may cause.Product SupportSupport is offered for PMDBM in the following conferences:NaNet: PMDBM Support conference - If you do not have access to the PMDBM conference, I may also be reached in IBM.Rime: Offline conference and Shareware conferenceIlink: Offline conference~Telephone support can also be provided - but only under extremecircumstances please - if you call (416) 421-6104. Suggestions andquestions should definitely be posted as E-mail. Sorry, no collectcalls.Message BaseThe MessageBase is the single most important component of PMDBM. Withit you are able to keep track of information about which conferencesyou've selected on your BBS and you can choose to save messages,either temporarily or for extended periods, without having to keepwhole QWK packets. Your MessageBase provides you with total controlover your saved messages and maintenance is minimized because onlythose messages which you've selected end up there.New mailNew Mail is mail which you've never read. While the status of amessage will change from New to Old as soon as you read it, themessage will continue to be viewable in 'New' mode until you exit theMessageBase. Selecting this option from the main menu will cause onlynew messages to be displayed. You can change from 'New' mode to anothermode from any main screen within PMDBM.Old mailOld mail is mail which you've read before. Selecting this option fromthe main menu will cause only old mail to be displayed. You can changefrom 'All' mode to another mode from any main screen within PMDBM.All mail (Default mode)By selecting this option from the main menu all mail, includingdeleted messages, are displayed. You can change from 'All' mode toanother mode from any main screen within PMDBM.Switching CFG filesPMDBM provides you with the ability to use multiple configurationfiles. This ability would be of primary interest to those usingmultiple BBSes, in which event a separate MessageBase is needed foreach BBS. To specify a file to use, you can either specify use acommand line switch, or you can use the 'Use New CFG' command fromPMDBM's main menu. When you choose the latter method, PMDBM willdisplay a list of the current CFG files. You can either pick one ofthose, or enter the name of a brand new file.~To specify a .CFG file on the command line, use the /F: switch inthe form: /F:filename.extwhere .ext can be omitted, in which case it defaults to .CFG. If youwant to specify a file which does not have an extension, place aperiod after the filename. If this switch is not used, PMDBM willstartup using the default MAILFILE.CFG file.QWK packetsQMAIL compatible Mail doors provide mail using what is known as theQWK format. It is these 'QWK packets' which PMDBM allows you to manageand process.Importing PacketsThe process of 'Importing' a packet adds a copy of every messagein the particular packet into PMDBM's MessageBase. You can importa packet in one of 2 ways. You can set the 'AutoImport' flag in theconfiguration to 'Y', in which case PMDBM will automatically importany QWK packet, or you can selectively import individual packetsby using the 'Import Packet' command from the main menu.Extract PTR FileThe PTR file is a file which is included in your QWK packet by QMAILand contains 2 pointers for each conference. The first pointeridentifies the last message which had been read (scanned or downloadedis more accurate) BEFORE the QWK packet was downloaded and the secondpointer identifies the last message which had been read AFTER the QWKpacket was downloaded. In the event of some problem on the BBS end, orif you lose a QWK packet and need to re-download it, it may sometimesbecome necessary for you to upload the PTR file in order to reset thepointers at the remote end.~PMDBM will automatically extract the latest PTR file from yourmost recent QWK packet and place it into the directory specifiedas the 'Replies Directory' - if the 'Extract PTR' option in theconfiguration is set to 'Y' (the default).~While anyone can use this option, it will be of most use to those whoturn the automatic 'Extract PTR' option off.Read QWK packetThe READ QWK PACKET option allows you to select a packet. Whenselected, PMDBM will display a list of QWK packets for your selection.If you'd previously read a packet, and the scratch directory hasn'tbeen cleared, PMDBM will also allow selection of the currentMESSAGES.DAT (this is the file which actually contains the messages).To select a file, just highlight your choice and hit <Enter>.ServicesServices are files provided by your BBS which you may wish to view.Some Services come compressed and others are provided as text files.PMDBM will determine which is true for the service you've selectedand will handle the decompression if necessary. To actually displaythe contents of the service, PMDBM will start up the utility whichyou've defined as the 'List Utility' in PMDBM's configuration.New Files ListThere are 2 options which PMDBM provides relating to the newfileslist. You can archive the list, in which case PMDBM appends thecurrent list to the file 'bbsname.NEW' (where bbsname is the one forthe specific messagebase in use) in the 'MAIN DIRectory' area or youcan view the list, in which case PMDBM fires up the utility whichyou've defined as the 'List Utility' in PMDBM's configuration.View BBSnewsThe BBS news file is a file provided by many sysops to update youregarding significant events. PMDBM will extract the BBS news filefrom your QWK packet and display its contents using the utility whichyou've defined as the 'List Utility' in PMDBM's configuration.Unpacking the QWKYour QWK packet comes compressed by an 'Archive' utility. PMDBM willuse the utility you've defined in the 'De-Archiver' field of theconfiguration to de-compress the QWK archive.~CONFIGURATIONThis is where you tell PMDBM how you would like things set up. WhilePMDBM does need to know some basic information about your system andpreferences, default values are provided initially which for the mostpart will serve most users. Even when change is necessary, configuringPMDBM is easy.~Both PMDCFG and PMDBM support the use of the ALT-P command whiledoing a configuration edit. ALT-P will print the current configurationto a file called PMDCFG.PRT - in the same directory as the program isrun from. You may at times find it useful to include a copy ofPMDCFG.PRT when reporting a problem.CommandsAs with any edit field in PMDBM, TAB and the Arrow Keys will move youfrom field to field.~Typing an alphanumeric key will erase the current contents of thefield you are at and you may enter a new value. If you do not wish toreplace the current contents of a field, but only want to modify theexisting information, first type the DEL or INSERT keys. This willplace you in edit mode without deleting the current contents. Once youare in Field Edit mode, you may use the Left and Right arrows, HOME orEND to move within the field.~After changing the value of a field, either <Enter> or <TAB> willcommit the changes and take you to the next field. It is recommendedthat you not use <ENTER> but use the <TAB> key instead.~If you hit <Enter> while not editing a field, <Enter> will commit theconfiguration as displayed and you will be returned to the Main Menu.It is for this reason that using <TAB> is recommended above.~And lastly, as is true for any of the main PMDBM screens, ALT-D orALT-J will shell you out to DOS. If you have swapping enabled in theconfiguration and you didn't use the /NS switch when starting PMDBM,PMDBM will remove most of itself from memory so that you can have lotsof memory available. BUT, while shelled out, care must be taken toensure that no applications or TSR's are run which do not releasetheir memory when you exit them. If PMDBM can not get all it's memoryback, it will be unable to reload itself!~Note that if the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, theISAM library will fail to deallocate it's expanded memory. A reboot istypically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not load anEMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).The OptionsPMDBM's configuration is easy to setup or change. Nonetheless, careshould be taken to ensure that all of the parameters are correctlyentered. Especially when it comes to configuring paths, an invalidvalue may potentially cause damage. So please take care. It isrecommended that the Configuration section in the manual be fullyread prior to setting up PMDBM.~When configuring the utilities, you may selectively disableswapping for a utility by starting the entry with the /NS switch.NOTE: DO NOT PLACE THE /NS anywhere except right at the beginning ofthe field!! Those who have sufficient memory to allow PMDBM to swapto memory will not likely want to disable swapping at all. But ifyou don't, and PMDBM needs to swap to disk, you may want to minimizethis disk activity where ever possible. While you would neverdisable swapping for your editor, if you use WordPerfect, you mightwant to disable it for the List utility. /NS allows you to do this.AGE NEWThe AGE NEW field defines the number of DAYS to retain the 'New'status of unread messages. After this time has elapsed, the 'New'status will be changed to 'old' and the message will begin toexpire.~You should set this to a value which will ensure that, combinedwith the expiry date, you give yourself enough time to read anynew message of interest. If you always read new messages within thefirst day or 2, you might set this value to 2. If you take longeryou might set it to 7.~The messages will not disappear after 7 days, but will begin toexpire. Since they will be retained in the message base for afurther period - equivalent to the expiry period for the specificconference - you may choose a small value for this number if yourexpiry periods are generous and a longer value if your expiryperiods are short. If this value is set to 0, the status will neverbe changed.ARCHIVERWhen downloaded, your QWK packets will be in archived form. Whenuploading your replies, you will need to archive them as well. This iswhere you specify the name of the archiver to use.~The default value for this field is: PKZIP -k In this example,the -k tells PKZIP not to change the date of the packet, but to'keep' the original date. Note that the -k is lower case! Youcan configure PMDBM to pass parameters to your utilities, and itis suggest that you re-familiarize yourself with those you usein order to configure them most effectively.AUTOIMPORTSWhen set to 'Y' PMDBM will automatically import any QWK file if it'sfilename exactly matches the BBSNAME.QWK format. Of course, thisexcludes files which have been renamed to the form BBSnumber.QWK.There is no harm done (apart from wasting a little time) if youaccidentally import a packet twice. PMDBM stores messages based onconference number and message number and will not store duplicatesagain. This feature works best if the RENAME PACKETS is set to 'Y'or some other software is used to rename your packets. Otherwise,PMDBM will attempt to import any packet which matches theBBSNAME.QWK format every time it starts up.BEEP PERSONALThis option enables/disables the warning beep which is used toidentify personal messages. If enabled, PMDBM will sound a beepwhenever you read a message in a conference other than 'PersonalMail' which is either addressed to you or posted by you.CLEAN PACKETThis option identifies the number of the packet which PMDBM should runthe 'Clean' batch file against. It is intended that this batch filecontain commands which remove certain files from your QWK packets.While some may like to keep a few mail packets around, keepingmultiple versions of BBSNEWS or the various Services is not alwaysdesirable.~The batch file would contain all the commands which you wish to haveexecuted against the QWK. It must exist in the Main Directory and becalled BBSname.CLN. When running the .CLN batch, PMDBM will invokethe batch file passing the name of the .QWK packet as the 1st and onlyparameter. A sample of this file (called SAMPLE.CLN) is included inthe distribution. The sample assumes that you are using PKzip /PKunzip and should be modified for your particular requirements.~The batch file is run whenever a newly downloaded packet is found,but only if PMDBM is handling the QWK packet renaming (ie: the RENAMEPACKETS option is set to 'Y'). Only one QWK packet is processed, thexth one where 'Clean Packets' defines the value of 'x'. You can disablethis option in 2 ways, set this option to 0 or make sure that you donot have a file called BBSname.CLN (where BBSname is the name ofyour BBS).CONFERENCES IN USEIf set to 'Y', only those conferences which are in use or have beenselected by you on the BBS will be presented for selection on the'Conference Selection Screen'. If set to 'N' then all conferences willbe displayed. Since this display can be toggled while you are in thereader, regardless the setting of this switch, all conferences areavailable for selection when entering or replying to messages and whenconfiguring the QMAIL door. A setting of 'Y' reduces peak memoryrequirements.DEFAULT EXPIRYWhen PMDBM adds a new conference to the MessageBase, it assigns itthis value as the default expiry period. This value can subsequentlybe changed on a conference-by-conference basis.DE-ARCHIVERComplement to ARCHIVER, is used to de-archive files from QWK or REPLYpackets.~The default value for this field is: PKUNZIP -oThe -o tells PKUNZIP to overwrite a file if it already exists.EDITOR NAMEThis can be the name of your favourite editor, or a batch file whichyou use to start it. The default setting is for a batch file in thedefault directory called EDITOR.BAT. If your editor cannot be found inyour CURRENT path, you will need to provide the full drive/path nameso the reader can find it. You may also specify any switches whichyour editor requires.~By adding a /TMP switch to this line, you will be indicating to PMDBMthat your editor supports the use of multiple edit windows, AND thatyou want to use them. In this event, PMDBM will create a special fileto contain quoted text and that file will be placed into the editor'ssecond edit-window.FIDO TAGLINEThe use of high-ascii characters is not allowed on Fido boards. Ifyou use FIDO, you should ensure that you do not use such characterswithin your messages. You can use this flag to tell PMDBM not to usehigh-ascii characters in it's tagline by setting this flag to 'Y'.This will establish a default setting, which can be changed on amessage by message basis when creating messages.FILENAME TO USEWhat you enter here will be used as the first 8 characters for namingPMDBM's MessageBase files. The default is MAILFILE. If a 'MAILFILE.*'already exists in the MAIN DIR, PMDBM will add a counter to the end ofthe default filename and increment it until it is unique.~Since one MessageBase can only support one BBS, this field will bemost useful to users of multiple BBSes. If you have more than 1configuration file, the value in this field should be unique. Thesame name should not be used in more than 1 configuration file. Moreinformation is provided in the section 'About PMDBM' under 'KeyConcepts'.IMPORT PERSONALWhen set to 'S' or 'A' this feature will automatically import anymessages from a QWK packet, into the MessageBase, which are addressedto or written by you.~The valid values for this field are: N - No importing S - Save personal messages A - Archive personal messages~Normally, messages which are automatically imported by PMDBM usethe 'save' function, and not the 'archive' function. Unless themessages are in a conference which has an expiry period of '0', themessages will expire if not manually 'archived'.~But in the case of personal messages, this is a 3-way toggle and youcan choose whether to do imports, and if so you can select eitherautomatic 'Saves' or 'Archives'.LIST UTILITYIn order to display various text files from your QWK packets, PMDBMrequires access to your list utility. The requirements for this fieldare the same as those for the EDITOR field. If you do not have a LISTutility of some form, you can specify 'TYPE' or 'TYPE | MORE' to havePMDBM use Dos' TYPE command. Alternatively, you may also use yourEditor.~List is usually a good candidate for the /NS switch (configuredas '/NS d:\path\LIST'.~At some points, as when reading bulletins, PMDBM can pass awildcarded filespec to the list utility. How your list utilityhandles wildcarded file names will have an affect on how usefulyour list utility is. Some list utilities will actually fail whena wildcard is used, others will only display the first file whichthey find. I think it safe to say that the majority do handlemulitple files now-a-days, and a particular keystoke is requiredto get the next file listed.MAIN DIRThis is the main directory which PMDBM should use for its files. If a.CFG file didn't exist when you entered Configure, the value you enterfor this field will be copied to all other DIRectory fields. The firsttime you start PMDBM, it will insert the current path into this field.You may change it to any path on any drive. Some people who usemultiple BBSes, or who wish to use multiple MessageBases choose tocreate a separate Main Dir for each.~The initial default value is the current directory.MAX MESSAGE LINESSome BBS software and Mail readers can not support long messages.PMDBM can split your outgoing messages at any point you specify here.Though the default (and recommended) value is 100 lines you can changethis value or totally disable this feature by setting it to 0,understanding that by doing so you may cause your messages to betruncated by some BBSes and readers.MAX PACKETS TO KEEPPMDBM will delete any QWK and REPly packets in excess of the numberspecified here. A value of 0, the default, disables this feature.RENAME PACKETS must also be enabled for this feature to work.MESSAGE FILE DIRThe database consists of several files. The 2 largest are the headerfile and the message file. Most files, including the header file, willalways be placed in the MAIN DIR, but if disk space is limited, youcan choose to place the MESSAGE file in a separate directory, and/or adifferent disk. (Except initially, it typically grows to become thelargest file).~The initial default value is the current directory. When a new CFGfile is being created, this value will change if the Main Dir valueis changed.PARAGRAPH QUOTESWhen set to 'Y', the initials of the message sender are only placed atthe head of each paragraph and line draw characters are used to markthe quoted section. When set to 'N', the initials are placed on everyquoted line followed by '> '.~ when set to 'N' LG> Well, what.... LG> PMDBM is the BEST!!~ when set to 'Y' LG┤ Well, what.... │ PMDBM is the BEST!!QWK FILE DIRThis tells PMDBM where you store your QWK packets. PMDBM will use theQWK files from this area.~The initial default value is the current directory. When a new CFGfile is being created, this value will change if the Main Dir valueis changed.RENAME PACKETSWhile I recommend that you leave this set to 'Y', setting this to 'N'allows you to disable PMDBM's renaming (and cleanup) of your QWK andREP files. The only time I'd recommend setting this to 'N' is if youuse another program which needs access to your QWK packets, and it isnot compatible with PMDBM's naming format. When this switch is set to'N', PMDBM will no longer be concerned about the name of the QWKpacket and will allow selection of any packet which is named *.QW*.REPLACEMENT SYMBOLPMDBM supports the use of certain variables in your header andfooter files. To identify such a variable, it must be preceded andfollowed by a special character and this is where you can specifythe character you wish to use and you may use virtually any validascii character here.~(For more info, see the SYMBOLS.DOC file, or the section 'SYMBOLS'under help for the 'REPLY HEADER' screen.)REPLIES DIRThis tells PMDBM where to store your REPLY packets. PMDBM will alsoplace your most recent message pointer file (.PTR file) here.~The initial default value is the current directory. When a new CFGfile is being created, this value will change if the Main Dir valueis changed.SCRATCH DIRPMDBM requires a 'Work' directory. This directory should optimally bea subdirectory of PMDBM's main directory. NOTE: *** IT SHOULD NOT BEUSED by any other application or for any *** other purpose. PMDBMliberally creates and deletes files in *** this area!! It also deletesthe directory when not in use! Because of the above, you may not usea root directory as the 'Work' directory.~The initial default value is a subdirectory called SCRATCH of thecurrent directory. When a new CFG file is being created, this valuewill change if the Main Dir value is changed.TAGLINE FILEPMDBM supports the use of tagline files. The files can be ordinarytext files, with one tagline per file line. It is recommended thatthese files reside in the MAIN directory. To use more than 1 file, youmay provide a wildcarded name and PMDBM will prompt for the selectionof a specific file when required. Unless the file is in the MAINdirectory, the filename should include the drive and path to the file.~As a rule, the value '*.TAG' is recommended for this field.USE COLORThis option can be toggled on/off for monochrome users so they don'thave to use the /M switch when firing up PMDBM. 'Y' is the defaultsetting.USE SWAPPINGWhen set to 'Y' PMDBM will swap itself out to memory if available,otherwise to disk, allowing PMDBM to free up the memory it is usingwhen other programs are started up.~Even if this option is set to 'N', there are occasions where it isnecessary for PMDBM to swap out. Except for these few cases, settingthis field to 'N' disables all swapping. A better means of disablingswapping would be to selectively disable it for individualutilities. If you use any memory-hungry utilities with PMDBM youwill have no choice but to leave this enabled.~Note that if the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, theISAM library will fail to deallocate it's expanded memory. A reboot istypically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not load anEMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).ZIP HDRWhen a QWK packet is read, a temporary index file is created in thescratch directory. This index file contains various information abouteach message, including whether or not it has been read. If ZIP HDR isset to 'Y', then the INDEX file will be zipped into the QWK packetwhen you exit the QWK reader portion of PMDBM. If set to 'N', then theindex file (.HDR file) will only exist until the scratch directory iscleaned up. In that case, subsequent re-reading of the QWK packet willcause a brand new index file to be created.~Personally, I recommend setting this to 'N', since the purpose ofthe reader is to eliminate the need to continually go back toprevious QWK packets. The time needed to zip the file is also longerthan the time needed to recreate a new one.~Note that as long as the scratch directory is not cleaned out (youare prompted for this) you can re-read the most recently used packetas often as you like, by selecting MESSAGES.DAT from the pick-listinstead of a QWK file. In this situation, the status informationcontained in the HDR file will not have been lost or overwritten.Toggled FieldsAs is the case with most Toggled-Fields within PMDBM, entering anyalphanumeric keystroke while in such a field will cause the value tochange. The values will cycle through the available choices one at atime and you can stop when the value is set to your requirement. Onthe configuration screen, all toggled fields have 2 valid settings- either Y or N - except the 'Import Personal' field, which has 3settings.CONFERENCE SCREENThis list displays the available conferences. The display has twomodes which can be toggled. By default (unless changed in theconfiguration) only 'Used and Selected' conferences are displayed.~Besides providing a means to enter the various conferences, thisscreen provides a number of other features. From it, the expiry datefor the messages is controlled and off-line QMAIL configurationcommands can be entered.~One of the most powerful features of this screen is that you can typealphanumeric characters. As you type, PMDBM will find the firstconference which matches the characters you've typed. When the typedcharacters are alphabetic, PMDBM will find the string whether itstarts a conference name or is imbedded in the name. Numeric stringsare only found if they match the start of a conference number. AND, byusing 'F3', you can tell PMDBM to find the next occurrence of the typedstring!Conference nameInitially, the conference name is the same as the one provided by theBBS. In the event that the BBS changes the name, and PMDBM hasopportunity to become aware of the name-change, PMDBM will updateyour MessageBase accordingly. BUT, you do have the ability to changethese names, should you choose. In the event that you have manuallyedited a conference name, PMDBM will no longer update THAT name evenif the BBS changes it.CommandsThere are several commands which can be entered from this screen.If you type any alphanumeric character, PMDBM will treat that as acommand to search for a specific conference. For this reason, exceptfor commands which use a special function key, the other commands usedon this screen require that they be accompanied by the ALT key (asindicated by the ALT+ on the menu bar).~Add ConferenceYou can create your own conferences in PMDBM's MessageBase with theALT-A command.ConfigureThe ALT-C command allows you to generate configuration commands forthe MAIL door you are using. In this way you can select or dropconferences and reset message pointers without having to do it whilelogged on to the BBS itself. The commands will be sent to the BBS withthe next batch of replies you upload. While PMDBM explicitly supportsonly QMAIL doors, other doors may also accept the commands. It isknown that the ROSEMAIL door, for example, will accept the QMAILconfiguration messages.~In addition to those options displayed when you do the ALT-C, youmay enter any valid configuration command while positioned on theblank line in the selection window. Whenever you use the ALT-Ccommand, a special message will automatically be created and will beadded to your packet during the next REPLY export. This option isintended to be used only with conferences for which an entry existsin the database but if you want to have PMDBM request that aconference be added for which a MessageBase entry does not yetexist, you can do so by doing an ALT-C and then typing in theappropriate ADD command manually on the blank line.Dos ShellAs is true for any of the main PMDBM screens, ALT-D or ALT-J willshell you out to DOS. If you have swapping enabled in theconfiguration and you didn't use the /NS switch when starting PMDBM,PMDBM will remove most of itself from memory so that you can have lotsof memory available. BUT, while shelled out, care must be taken toensure that no applications or TSR's are run which do not releasetheir memory when you exit them. If PMDBM can not get all it's memoryback, it will be unable to reload itself!~Note that if the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, theISAM library will fail to deallocate it's expanded memory. A rebootis typically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not loadan EMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).~Edit ConferenceThere are several fields which you can edit for a conference by usingALT-E. The one most often changed is the Expiry Date field. This fielddefines how long saved messages are to be kept and is conferencespecific. A value of 0 tells PMDBM to treat all messages as archived.~Another field some find of value is the Comments field. PMDBM does notuse this field for anything particular and it is totally up to youwhat you place in this field.~While you may change the Name field, PMDBM will no longer maintainthe name of those conferences for which you've changed the name.~The number field and the type fields can not be changed on anexisting conference.Find ConferencePMDBM allows you type a conference number or a conference name on theConference Selection list. As you type, PMDBM finds the firstconference which matches the characters (or number) typed. If thecharacters typed are alphabetic, PMDBM will search for matchingcharacters imbedded in a conference name.~Should you want PMDBM to find the next occurrence of a particularstring, you need only hit the F3 key. If another occurrence exists,PMDBM will find it. (This is great if you have the full list ofconferences up and want to find all of them on a specific topic!!)~This function is also available when selecting a conference for areply header (during the Message Header edit).Import ConferenceIf used while reading a QWK packet, the ALT-I command tells PMDBM toimport all messages from the current conference into the MessageBase.Join a ConferenceTo read the messages in a conference, you only need to have PMDBMhighlight the conference name and then press <Enter> or the <spacebar>. To highlight a conference, you can type the first few charactersof the name or the number. You may also use the arrow keys, the HOME,END, PGUP and PGDN keys.Kill (ALT-K)The Kill command serves 2 functions. If used on an empty conference,KILL will physically remove that conference from the MessageBase. Oncedone, the conference can not be undeleted, although an equivalent recordcan be re-created.~But if the conference is not empty, then this command provides a meansto quickly KILL (permanently!!) all of the messages in the conference.In this case, the conference itself will not be deleted, though it maynot appear on the brief (Used) conference listing.Toggle DisplayThe ALT-T, or Toggle Display, command allows you to switch between afull listing with all conferences displayed or a partial list withonly those conferences listed which you've selected or which havemessages in them.Change Mode (ALT-N)As with the Message Selection Screen and the Message Screen, thecurrent mode is indicated in the upper right hand corner of thescreen. There are 3 different modes available while reading theMessageBase and the same 3 are also available while reading a QWKpacket. In effect, this means that there are 6 modes. The modeswhich you will see are: (All), (New), (Old), (All QWK), (New QWK)and (Old QWK). These modes let you know which messages are availablefor your viewing.~IF YOU CANNOT FIND A MESSAGE WHICH YOU KNOW YOU'VE SEEN PREVIOUSLY,check the mode. It may be that you are working in NEW mode, in whichcase a previously read message would not be viewable without a modechange.New Message Flag (»)The » flag following a conference number indicates that the conferencecontains new messages. PMDBM also uses this flag to determine whichconference it should jump to next when you return to this screen afterhaving been in a conference.Message CounterThe numeric value next to the conference name indicates the number ofmessages which are available for you to read IN THE CURRENT MODE.This number will change as the mode are changesStatisticsThe statistics box at the bottom of screen provides summaryinformation for the CURRENTLY HIGHLIGHTED conference Since many of thestatistics at the bottom of the Conference Selection screen are noteven available for QWK packets, nor would they be relevant, thesestatistics ALWAYS refer to the MessageBase.ArchivedThis provides a count of those messages which are being stored withoutan expiry date.CommentThe comment field is a 30 character field provided for your use. PMDBMitself makes no use of it, except for conference which are createdin response to a 'Find' operation.DeletedThis is a count of all messages which have been deleted, or which haveexpired, but have not yet been cleared out of the MessageBase. In orderto get the actual total count of messages in a conference, this numbershould be added to the 'Total Messages' value.UnreadThe Unread count is a count of New messages.Total MessagesThere are 2 'Total Messages' values on this display screen. The oneinside the statistics box indicates the total number of messages inthe message base, for the currently highlighted conference. This totaldoes not include Deleted messages.~The other value, just above the statistics box, gives a total countfor the currently selected QWK packet, if one is currently being read.Otherwise it provides a total count of all messages in the MessageBase.Exclude listIt is possible to have PMDBM exclude certain conferences from anyparticular MessageBase, even if the conferences are in the CONTROL.DATor the QWK packet. This is done by creating an 'exclude' file called"filename".XCL where "filename" is the name specified in the FILENAMEfield of the configuration. The XCLude file must reside in the MAINdirectory. The format of the XCL file is simple, only 1 conferencenumber per line and each line must contain a conference numberstarting in the 1st column. Additional information may be included inthe file, such as the conference name, as long as the number isfollowed by a space. The additional info will be ignored by PMDBM.~There are 2 instances where this mechanism could be of value. First,if you wish to permanently delete conferences from a MessageBase, andnot have them added back in the next time you download a fullCONTROL.DAT. (Of course, if you create the XCL before the conferencesare added, you won't have to delete them manually). Second, if youwant to set up multiple MessageBases for the same BBS. In this secondcase, you would have 1 XCLude file for each MessageBase and only thoseconferences which you want the particular MessageBase to contain wouldnot be listed in the XCL for that MessageBase.~SUBJECT SCREENThis screen is used to display the list of messages. While the defaultsort order is by subject, the sort may be changed to any field.~The 2 leftmost character positions are used for special status flags: ∞ (infinity) is used to indicate an archived message » is used to indicate a new (unread) message x is used to indicate a deleted or expired message r indicates that you've written a replyKey ContactsThe 'Contacts' command appends the name of the message sender to oneof your CarbonCopy List files. The names in a CarbonCopy List file(*.CCL) can then be used as either a Key Contact or one of the nameson a CarbonCopy distribution. The first time you use this command,PMDBM will create the default 'CONTACTS.CCL' file and append thename to it. Subsequent uses of the command will provide you withoption of selection CONTACTS.CCL as the file or of entering yourown file name manually.Archive/SaveTyping 'A' or INSERT will change a message's expiry date so that itnever expires. An archived message can never be deleted automaticallyby PMDBM. In fact, additional protection is provided for archivedmessages by totally disallowing the KILL command to be used on them.~Typing 'S' to do a save is similar to doing an archive, except thesaved message acquires a default expiry period, based on theconference expiry period. A saved message is, therefore, only in themessagebase temporarily. Of course, if the default expiry period forthe conference is 0, then the saved message will effectively also endup being archived. This command also be equates to an 'undelete'operation on a deleted message.~Both commands will automatically insert a copy of the current messageinto the current MessageBase, if you are reading from a QWK packet.Dos ShellAs is true for any of the main PMDBM screens, ALT-D or ALT-J willshell you out to DOS. If you have swapping enabled in theconfiguration and you didn't use the /NS switch when starting PMDBM,PMDBM will remove most of itself from memory so that you can have lotsof memory available. BUT, while shelled out, care must be taken toensure that no applications or TSR's are run which do not releasetheir memory when you exit them. If PMDBM can not get all it's memoryback, it will be unable to reload itself!~Note that if the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, theISAM library will fail to deallocate it's expanded memory. A reboot istypically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not load anEMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).Expiry dateEvery message in the MessageBase eventually has an expiry dateassociated with it. In the case of an archived message, this Expirydate is indefinite, otherwise the expiry date is calculated at thetime the message is entered into the MessageBase, based on the defaultexpiry period for the specific conference. (This value can be editedfrom the Conference Selection Screen). Once a message expires, it willbe removed from the MessageBase automatically. New Messages do nothave an expiry date associated with them, UNTIL they have been in themessage base for the number of days specified in the AGE NEW field ofthe Configuration. Once they have been in the message base for thespecified number of days, they will loose their 'New' status andbegin to expire like any other saved message.~Without a registered keyfile, PMDBM will not clean out expired messages.Delete (D)A delete is similar to a Kill, except that it does not become permanentfor as many as 2 days. During this time, the Xtend, Save or Archivecommands can be used to Undelete it.~In non-registered copies, deleted messages will be flagged as such, butwill be retained in the MessageBase indefinitely.Enter/ReplyEnter~You use the Enter command when you want to enter a message into yourreply packet without doing a reply to an existing message. In this casePMDBM will start your editor without including quotes from the currentmessage.~Reply~You use REPLY when you want to enter a message in Reply to the currentmessage or when you want text from the current message available forquoting. In this case PMDBM will include the current message into yournew message, prior to starting up your editor.~Just as a note, when entering a 'Reply', PMDBM supplies a header atthe top of your Edit window. First, you should not delete the doubleline. PMDBM uses this to determine where your message starts andbasically ignores anything before it. As a rule, removing this linewon't really cause a problem, but if you do remove it, and your replyhas a similar line in it, PMDBM will ignore (and leave out) the toppart of your message.~Secondly, you'll notice that there is either a (PUBLIC) or (PRIVATE)in the upper right hand. This refers to the original status of themessage you are replying to, and not to the private/public statuswhich you've selected.Kill (K)The Kill command will PERMANENTLY remove a message from the MessageBase.Because the Kill command is so final, confirmation is requested beforethe operation will complete. Additionally, on the assumption thatARCHIVED messages are (or were) important, Archived messages can notbe Killed but must be deleted.~The Kill command is not supported without a key file.ListThis command will allow you to view *.CC* files from either the SubjectSelection Screen or while reading a message.MoreDisplays a small pop-up window of additional commands. It isn'tnecessary to use 'M' before using the commands.NewThis is actually a 'Mode' or 'Change Mode' command, but I'm runningout of letters <g>. It toggles a switch telling the reader whichmessages you want to view. There are 3 modes and the current mode isalways displayed in the upper right hand corner of the screen. InALL mode, all messages (including deleted messages) are displayed.In NEW mode, only new (unread) messages are displayed. This is thedefault when reading a QWK packet. In OLD mode, only old (previouslyread) messages are displayed.PrintingThis option allows you to print the current message to one of severalplaces. As with many pick lists, PMDBM allows you to manually enterthe name of a file or select a predefined destination. The first 2options on the list are provided specially so that you can includetext from various messages in the next reply you create.Reply Quote/Include FilesThe 'reply' files are special files which PMDBM will include inthe next message to be created by you. It doesn't matter whether themessage is a 'Reply' or a new message about to be created. With theQuote file, PMDBM will use the 'Quoting' style you've selected toplace the initials of the message sender at the beginning of eachline. With the Include file, PMDBM will just include it as is. Inboth cases, PMDBM will provide a header at the beginning of each'printed' message for your information during the subsequent editsession.Skip (+)Entering "+" will cause the current thread to be abandoned, and PMDBMwill skip ahead to the next thread. This only works on 'MessageConferences' and not 'Pointer Conferences' (of which Personal Mail isan example).sOrt (O)By default PMDBM uses the 'Subject' field as the primary sort key,and the message number as the secondary sort key. You can changethe primary sort key by using the 'Sort' command. Except whenthe primary key is the 'Message Number' field, PMDBM will alwaysuse the message number as the secondary key. Using the Message Numberas the primary key is effectively the same as using the message date.Usually the older the message, the smaller the message number.ViewThis command allows you to preview the first few lines of a messagewithout actually having to go to the Message Screen.Xtend (Undelete)This command Extends the expiry date for a message, by the numberof days defined as the default expiry period for the conference. Ifthe default expiry for a conference is 10 days, then each time thiscommand is used it will extend the expiry date of the message by10 days.~If used to extend the expiry date of a Deleted (or expired) message,this command is equivalent to doing an 'Undelete'.~MESSAGE SCREENThis screen is used to actually display the message content. The topfew lines are used for the message header information below whicha scrolling window is used to display the message.Archive/SaveTyping 'A' or INSERT will change a message's expiry date so that itnever expires. An archived message can never be deleted automaticallyby PMDBM. In fact, additional protection is provided for archivedmessages by totally disallowing the KILL command to be used on them.~Typing 'S' to do a save is similar to doing an archive, except thesaved message acquires a default expiry period, based on theconference expiry period. A saved message is, therefore, only in themessagebase temporarily. Of course, if the default expiry period forthe conference is 0, then the saved message will effectively also endup being archived. This command also be equates to an 'undelete'operation on a deleted message.~Both commands will automatically insert a copy of the current messageinto the current MessageBase, if you are reading from a QWK packet.DeleteA delete is similar to a Kill, except that it does not become permanentfor as many as 2 days. During this time, the Xtend, Save or Archivecommands can be used to Undelete it.~In non-registered copies, deleted messages will be flagged as such, butwill be retained in the MessageBase.Dos ShellAs is true for any of the main PMDBM screens, ALT-D or ALT-J willshell you out to DOS. If you have swapping enabled in theconfiguration and you didn't use the /NS switch when starting PMDBM,PMDBM will remove most of itself from memory so that you can have lotsof memory available.~BUT, while shelled out, care must be taken to ensure that noapplications or TSR's are run which do not release their memory whenyou exit them. If PMDBM can not get all it's memory back, it will beunable to reload itself! One potential problem is with the DOS PRINTcommand. PRINT will leave a portion of itself resident the firsttime it is run. To avoid a problem with it, insert the followingline in your AUTOEXEC.BAT: PRINT /D:LPTx (where x is the printerport number).~Note that if the swapper fails to reload PMDBM for any reason, theISAM library will fail to deallocate it's expanded memory. A reboot istypically required to clear this. (Windows users who do not load anEMM driver in CONFIG.SYS can just restart Windows).Enter/ReplyEnter~You use the Enter command when you want to enter a message into yourreply packet without doing a reply to an existing message. In this casePMDBM will start your editor without including quotes from the currentmessage.~Reply~You use REPLY when you want to enter a message in Reply to the currentmessage or when you want text from the current message available forquoting. In this case PMDBM will include the current message into yournew message, prior to starting up your editor.~Just as a note, when entering a 'Reply', PMDBM supplies a header atthe top of your Edit window. First, you should not delete the doubleline. PMDBM uses this to determine where your message starts andbasically ignores anything before it. As a rule, removing this linewon't really cause a problem, but if you do remove it, and your replyhas a similar line in it, PMDBM will ignore (and leave out) the toppart of your message.~Secondly, you'll notice that there is either a (PUBLIC) or (PRIVATE)in the upper right hand. This refers to the original status of themessage you are replying to, and not to the private/public statuswhich you've selected.Expiry dateEvery message in the MessageBase eventually has an expiry dateassociated with it. In the case of an archived message, this Expirydate is indefinite, otherwise the expiry date is calculated at thetime the message status changes from 'New' to 'Old', based on thedefault expiry period for the specific conference. (This defaultvalue can be edited from the Conference Selection Screen).~Once a message expires, it will be removed from the MessageBaseautomatically. New Messages do not have an expiry date associatedwith them, UNTIL they are read, or they have been in the messagebase for the number of days specified in the AGE NEW field of theConfiguration. Once they have been in the message base for thespecified number of days, they will loose their 'New' status andbegin to expire like any other saved message.~Without a registered keyfile, PMDBM will allow messages to expire,but will not delete them.FindWhen the FIND function is used, a SOUNDS-LIKE test is automaticallydone on the TO: and FROM: fields in the message headers. Each searchparameter is tested for similarity against the FULL NAME in each ofthe 2 fields. Because the test is against the full name, a search for"Wilsen" will not return a message from "Tom Wilson". On the hand, asearch for "Thom Wilsen" should be successful.~PMDBM supports the use of multiple search criteria. The '&' is usedto denote 'and' and the '|' is used to denote 'or'. As many parameterscan be tacked together using these symbols as there is free memory <g>but the more parameters there are, the longer the search will take, ofcourse. As a result the above are reserved characters.~Using the 'F3' key will cause PMDBM to search for the next matchingmessage. Since PMDBM will remember the latest search criteria till youexit, you can perform this search on multiple conferences even if theyare from different packets!Additional Notes:1) A multi-word search parameter will be found even if it happens to span multiple lines.~2) TABs, Form Feeds, Carriage Returns, Line Feeds and multiple spaces WITHIN a message are ignored - As a result, if they are used within the search criteria, the search WILL FAIL!~3) AND searches and OR searches are supported.~4) Searches are not case sensitive. In other words, all matches are found regardless of case.~5) Only the following fields are searched: FROM, TO, SUBJECT and the message body.~6) An AND search works as follows:~ If the search criteria is: OS/2 & MS-DOS & PS/2~ Only those messages which contain all 3 terms, namely "OS/2", "MS-DOS" AND "PS/2", will be considered a match.~7) An OR search works as follows:~ If the search criteria is entered as: OS/2 | MS-DOS | PS/2~ All messages which contain any one of the 3 search terms will be found.~8) AND searches and OR searches may be combined as demonstrated in the following examples:~ If the search criteria is: IBM PS/2 & OS/2 | IBM PS/2 & MS-DOS~ The search will be treated as follows:~ All messages which contain BOTH "IBM PS/2" and "OS/2" will be have qualified for the search.~ Additionally, all messages which contain BOTH "IBM PS/2" and "MS-DOS" will also qualify and be found.~ Search criteria are first broken into ORed segments. Each OR segment is then tested to see if it contains AND terms. If all ANDed terms, in any one of the OR segments, tests true than the message is considered to match the selection criteria.~If the message being read contains any of the search terms fromthe most recent search, the terms will be highlighted. To stopthe system from highlighting these, start a search by entering an'F' then hit ESCape to clear the search criteria. Whilehighlighting is done within the message body, matching termswithin the message header are not highlighted.HeaderThe header contains various useful information about the message beingread. While most of the fields are pretty self explanatory, a coupledo bear explaining. Some find the STATUS field a little confusing, inthat it does not relate to the status as far as PMDBM is concerned. Infact, this field indicates the status which was given to the messageby the BBS at the time it was downloaded. Therefore, the 'READ' and'UNREAD' status have no bearing on whether you have read the messageor not, but on whether the message recipient had read it at thetime it was downloaded.~PMDBM's status is indicated in the 'EXP:' field, where you may seevarious information. When reading a QWK packet, the field willindicate whether the message being read is old or new. If a copy ofthe message has been archived into the Message Base, then the fieldwill contain the word 'Archived'. In the Message Base, this field willindicate the 'Expiry' status of the message.JoinReturns you to the Conference Selection screen, bypassing the SubjectSelection Screen.Key ContactsThe 'Contacts' command appends the name of the message sender to oneof your CarbonCopy List files. The names in a CarbonCopy List file(*.CCL) can then be used as either a Key Contact or one of the nameson a CarbonCopy distribution. The first time you use this command,PMDBM will create the default 'CONTACTS.CCL' file and append thename to it. Subsequent uses of the command will provide you withoption of selection CONTACTS.CCL as the file or of entering yourown file name manually.Kill (K)The Kill command will PERMANENTLY remove a message from the MessageBase.Because the Kill command is so final, confirmation is requested beforethe operation will complete. Additionally, on the assumption thatARCHIVED messages are (or were) important, Archived messages can notbe Killed but must be deleted.~The Kill command is not allowed without a key file.ListThis command will allow you to view *.CC* files from either the SubjectSelection Screen or while reading a message.MoreDisplays a small pop-up window of additional commands. It isn'tnecessary to use 'M' before using the commands.NewThis is actually a 'Mode' or 'Change Mode' command, but I'm runningout of letters <g>. It toggles a switch telling the reader whichmessages you want to view. There are 3 modes and the current mode isalways displayed in the upper right hand corner of the screen. InALL mode, all messages (including deleted messages) are displayed.In NEW mode, only new (unread) messages are displayed. This is thedefault when reading a QWK packet. In OLD mode, only old (previouslyread) messages are displayed.PrintingThis option allows you to print the current message to one of severalplaces. As with many pick lists, PMDBM allows you to manually enterthe name of a file or select a predefined destination. The first 2options on the list are provided specially so that you can includetext from various messages in the next reply you create.~The output is formatted, with a numbered header for each page. (Thisis true except when the files being used are the special 'Reply'files). This is true whether you are printing to a file or theprinter.Reply Quote/Include FilesThe 'reply' files are special files which PMDBM will include inthe next message to be created by you. It doesn't matter whether themessage is a 'Reply' or a new message about to be created. With theQuote file, PMDBM will use the 'Quoting' style you've selected toplace the initials of the message sender at the beginning of eachline. With the Include file, PMDBM will just include it as is. Inboth cases, PMDBM will provide a header at the beginning of each'printed' message for your information during the subsequent editsession.~If they exist, both include files are deleted after the successfulcompletion of a Reply or Enter operation. Since the files are createdin the Scratch area, they will also be deleted whenever the Scratcharea is cleaned out.Skip (+)Entering "+" will cause the current thread to be abandoned, and PMDBMwill skip ahead to the next thread. This only works on 'MessageConferences' and not 'Pointer Conferences' (of which Personal Mail isan example).Sort orderBy default PMDBM uses the 'Subject' field as the primary sort key,and the message number as the secondary sort key. You can changethe primary sort key by using the 'Sort' command. Except whenthe primary key is the 'Message Number' field, PMDBM will alwaysuse the message number as the secondary key. Using the Message Numberas the primary key is effectively the same as using the message date.Usually the older the message, the smaller the message number.Subject EditSince messages in the message base may be around for some time, andsince some of the entries in the Subject field may not be relevant, ordescriptive enough, you can edit this field via the 'suBj (B)' command.~The same rules apply for doing an edit on the Subject as for any otheredit field within PMDBM.Tag Line ThiefUsing the internal Tagline Thief, you can 'steal' any segment of anymessage line which you see on the screen, if you feel it would make agood tagline.~If no tagline files exist PMDBM will create the default fileTAGLINES.TAG. Once at least one file exists, PMDBM will first promptfor a filename before proceeding to highlight a line. When prompted,you can select one of the displayed files, or you can manually typein the name of an alternate file. If the file you provide doesn'texist already, PMDBM will create it.~Once the File has been selected, PMDBM will highlight a line in themessage. You can scroll this line up or down until it is highlightingthe one you want to use. By using the left and right arrow keys, youare able to narrow in on the line segment which you want to cut.Should you move too far in, you can use the > and < keys (unshifted isok) to widen the width of the selected segment.~Once you have everything set to your liking, just hit enter and youwill then be provided an opportunity to edit the tagline before itget's appended to the file.~To abort the process at any time before the tagline is actuallysaved, you need only hit the <ESC> key.UsenetBy selecting the Usenet option, you are asking PMDBM to add theUsenet Address of the message sender to a 'Usenet Carbon Copy' list(*.CCU file). If PMDBM is unable to find a valid Usenet address inthe current message, it will ignore the command.Xtend /UndeleteThis command Extends the expiry date for a message, by the numberof days defined as the default expiry period for the conference. Ifthe default expiry for a conference is 10 days, then each time thiscommand is used it will extend the expiry date of the message by10 days.~If used to extend the expiry date of a Deleted (or expired) message,this command is equivalent to doing an 'Undelete'.>,.<> or . will scroll display to the right on messages wider than 80 columns. This key will also move the right margin further to the right while stealing a tagline.< or , Will scroll display back to the left. This key will also move the left margin further to the left while stealing a tagline.TAB Will jump to the far right on messages wider than 80 columns.BackSpace Will jump back to the far left.~REPLY HEADERThe Reply Header Screen allows you to address your reply and make sureit goes to the intended person, in the right conference. Care mustbe taken to ensure that it is correct, else your reply may not endup where you wanted it to.~As is true throughout PMDBM, you can use the <TAB> to move from fieldto field, or the left and right arrow keys. The 3 short fields in theupper right hand corner are 'Toggled' fields. That means that the UPand DOWN arrow keys toggle the allowable values. Except in these 3fields, the up and down arrow keys may be used to move from field tofield as well.Entering The NameCare must be taken when entering a user name since the BBS will notcorrect mistakes. Typing an alpha-numeric character into this fieldwill cause a list of default options to be displayed. You can chooseto send the message to the original sender, the original recipient,to ALL, etc. At this point you may also choose to use a CCL orCCU file.~Because most BBS software expects names to be in uppercase, and theQWK format defines these fields as upper case, and it is conceivablethat some BBS software might not consider mixed case equivalent toupper, PMDBM forces all usernames to upper case.Header/footer filesPMDBM supports the use of multiple header and footer files. They areselected as follows:~ a) conference specific header/footer files get precedence. These must be named using the format HDRxxxx. and FTRxxxx. where the xxxx is the conference number.~ b) if the conference is a Usenet conference, then HEADER.NET and FOOTER.NET are selected, if they exist.~ c) Finally, if none of the above exist, or are appropriate, HEADER. and FOOTER. are used.~The files are automatically included for you at the start of your editsession. The use of variables in these files is supported; the fileSYMBOLS.DOC details what these are and how to use them.~There is a design flaw, if you will, in that Carbon Copy lists cannot use Conference specific Header and footer files when messagesare being carboned to more than 1 conference. The only workaroundfor this at the time is to export 'Replies' then re-import themand re-edit any individual messages which need to be tailored.Selecting ConferenceTo select a conference, you first need to move to the appropriatefield on the header. Typing any alpha-numeric character will causePMDBM to display a list of conferences.~This list works much the same way as the main Conference list. Infact they share the same information in memory. Therefore, if the mainlist is only displaying selected conferences, those same conferenceswill be displayed here. Typing ALT-T will toggle the list, from Briefto Full or vice versa. Typing an alphanumeric character will causePMDBM to search for a conference; or you can use the arrow keys, thePGDN, PGUP, HOME and END keys.TaglineAfter you've completed editing the message, and prior to saving it,PMDBM will allow you to append a tagline, if you have existing taglinefiles. You will be provided with the opportunity to select the taglinefile, and then to select a tagline from the file. PMDBM will parsesymbols which are imbedded in the tagline. The file SYMBOLS.DOC detailswhat these are and how to used them.~When re-editing a message in REPLIES conference, and the message has atagline, you will be prompted on whether to re-use the original ornot. If you select N (Y is default) you will be given the option toselect a new tag.~For non-registered users, PMDBM uses a special 'evaluation' taglineso this feature is not available without a registered keyfile. Theprocess may nonetheless be evaluated, and will work except that theselected tagline will not actually be used.UsenetPMDBM provides Special Usenet Gateway Support. One of the powerfulfeatures built into PMDBM is that while reading a message from aUsenet conference, you can capture the USENET address of the messagesender and save it to a *.CCU file. Then while creating a message orentering a reply, you can choose to send the message to 'UsenetGateway'.~When you select the 'Usenet Gateway' in the TO, and *.CCU filesexist, PMDBM will allow you to select one of these files as theaddress source. You can then select one of the addresses as thedestination for your message.Echo/Non-echoedMessages which are entered into networked conferences can end upbeing echoed all over North America, indeed all over the world. Insome cases you may not know whether the message recipient is local toyour board or not, so the default setting of this flag is 'Echoed'.One of the problems with Echoed mail is that there is no way toensure privacy. While non-echoed messages can still be read by yoursysop, they cannot be read by anyone else, but this isn't true withechoed mail. If you know that the message recipient is local to yourboard, it is considered good etiquette (and generally good practice)not to echo mail which is of no interest to others.Fido Tag/Non-FidoThis toggle is used to turn Fido compliant taglines on and off.FIDO boards do not allow the use of high-ascii characters. This togglewill ensure that the portion of the tagline which PMDBM uses doesn'tcontain illegal characters. In my opinion, what you put into yourmessages is your business and PMDBM will not change your message.In my opinion, FIDO software should be smart enough to discardillegal characters anyway.Public/PrivateMessages which are posted as Public can be read by everyone. If themessage you are sending is not of general interest, you should setthe message to Private. You should note that no message is reallyprivate. At the least, your sysop can read any message on his boardand if the message is echoed out over a network, then the statusmay even be changed from private to public at some point in it'stravels.~Just as a note, when entering a 'Reply', PMDBM supplies a header atthe top of your Edit window. First, you should not delete the doubleline. PMDBM uses this to determine where your message starts andbasically ignores anything before it. As a rule, removing this linewon't really cause a problem, but if you do remove it, and your replyhas a similar line in it, PMDBM will ignore (and leave out) the toppart of your message.~Secondly, you'll notice that there is either a (PUBLIC) or (PRIVATE)in the upper right hand. This refers to the original status of themessage you are replying to, and not to the private/public statuswhich you've selected.Split AtMost BBS software cannot support messages longer than some maximum.This is also true of many readers. While the limit for newersoftware typically exceeds 200 lines, older versions are still usedby many and these often can't support messages in excess of 99lines.~While PMDBM allows you to create messages up to 1400 lines inlength, you should typically not post such long messages. Not onlyis it possbile that the intended recipient won't receive the wholemessage, but it's possible that the message may create problems onsome boards or for some users.~To support the need for long replies, PMDBM can split messages intomultiple segments and the default segment length is configurable inPMDBM's configuration. While the initial segment length for anymessage is equal to the default, it may be changed individually foreach message you create. As when the default is set to 0, settingthis value to 0 will disable message splitting for the message.Symbol TranslationThe character which precedes and follows your symbols is defined inthe configuration. For the purpose of documentation, I will use the"@" character, which is the default. At this time, while care shouldstill be used in the symbol's selection, translation only occurs forsymbols in the header or footer files and the tagline, so the risk isminimal. The symbols may use lower, upper or mixed case. (The followinginformation is also contained in the file SYMBOLS.DOC).~The following are the supported symbol translations which are done inthe header and footer files at the start of the edit session:~ @C@ - The current line will be centered. @TO@ - The recipient of the message being replying to @FROM@ - The Sender of the message being replied to @FIRST@ - The first name of the Sender @LAST@ - The last name of the Sender @DATE@ - Current system date @TIME@ - Current system time @WEEKDAY@ - the first 3 letters of the weekday in the form WWW @DAY@ - the current date in the form DD @MONTH@ - the current month in the form MMM @MTH@ - the current month in its numeric form of MM @YEAR@ - the current year in the form YY @MSGDATE@ - Date from header of message being replied to @MSGTIME@ - Time from header of message being replied to @MSGDAY@ - the message date in the form DD @MSGMONTH@- the message month in the form MMM @MSGMTH@ - the message month in its numeric form of MM @MSGYEAR@ - the year of the message in the form YY @MSGNUM@ - Message Number of message being replied to @SUBJ@ - Message Subject from the header @ME@ - Your BBS username @MYFIRST@ - Your first name @MYLAST@ - Your surname @CONFNO@ - The current Conference number @CONF@ - The current conference name @MSGNUM@ - The Message Number assisgned by the BBS, to the message being replied to.~ Usenet Specific Symbols: @UAddress - Address to whom the message will be sent!! First choice will be address selected from a .CCU file. If a CCU isn't used, then it will translate the same as @UFrom@ @UFrom@ - sender of USENET Message being responded to @UTo@ - Recipient of USENET Message (typically ALL, or you) @UIdent@ - USENET message identification @USubj@ - USENET subject @UGroup@ - USENET newsgroup to which the original message had been posted.~ NOTE: HEADER and FOOTER must be placed in the MAIN directory. In this way, separate files can be used for each MessageBase, if each MessageBase is provided with it's own Main Directory. Support is provided for a second set of files, called HEADER.NET and FOOTER.NET, used only for USENET messages, as well as for conference specific files called HDRxxxx. and FTRxxxx. where xxxx is the conference number.~The Following symbols are translated at the end of the Message Edit:~ Any of the above, if found in the TagLine, will be translated AFTER the edit.~ Additionally, the following symbols will not be translated until the edit session is ended. The symbols are the same length as the string which will replace them, so that proper alignment is possible during the edit. Because translation occurs after the edit, they will be translated if they appear anywhere in the message. @SYS-DATE@ - Current System Date @SYTIME@ - Current System TimePMDCFGPMDCFG is the companion program to PMDBM. In order to reduce PMDBM'snormal memory usage, PMDCFG contains certain memory intensive routineswhich are automatically invoked by PMDBM. Although PMDBM allows usersto modify their configurations, PMDCFG also provides this ability.Additionally, PMDCFG provides registered users with variousmaintenance functions.MessageBase Maintenance~Before using any of the following routines, it is recommended thatyou have a recent backup of the MessageBase. This includes both thefilename.HDR and the filename.FIL file (where filename is the namespecified in the 'FILENAME' field of the configuration.ISAMPACKThis option runs the Microsoft utility ISAMPACK. It takes the current.HDR file and builds a new compressed version of it. Prior to runningthis program, PMDBM first renames the current .HDR file to .HDB.~IMPORTANT: If the ISAMPACK program fails, DO NOT RE-RUN IT or any ofthe other maintenance functions UNTIL you've renamed the .HDB back to.HDR!! Of course, if any serious problem occurs, you will be able torestore your backup - Right??~The ISAMPACK utility is supplied by Microsoft and can also be runmanually from outside of PMDCFG. The commandline for doing so is: ISAMPACK filename.old filename.newIn this case, if a new filename isn't specified, ISAMPACK willrename the current file using the extension .BAK and create the newfile using the old extension.Rebuild Message FileThis option takes the current .FIL file and copies each active recordinto a new file. The original version is renamed to .FIB. Once the newFIL file is created, PMDCFG then counts all the records and updatesthe various counters. The .HDR and .FIL files are closely linked andare a matched set. Because it is necessary for this process to modifythe .HDR file, the old .FIB file could no longer be used with the .HDRfile after this process has been run. For this reason, making a backupcopy of the .HDR file prior to starting the message file rebuild isHIGHLY recommended.~In the event of a failure during this process, PMDCFG does attempt torollback the files if necessary. But it is possible that the recoveryitself may fail, at which point a backup may need to be restored.After any failure in this process, in which a rollback was notrequired, it will be necessary to re-run the process in order for itto complete fully.~And in the event of any failure, the MessageBase should be carefullyassessed for any possible damage. This requires going into many ofthe conferences and actually reading several messages in each. If anycorruption is noted, the backup files should be restored.SPECIALThis option is only needed by users of older versions of PMDBM. Itwill upgrade a version 1.0ß or 1.1ß database so it is compatible withversions 1.2ß and 1.3ß. IT MUST NOT BE RUN MORE THAN ONCE! While asecond attempt to run would likely fail, there is a possibility thatsome corruption could occur.Help File MaintenanceRegistered users can modify PMDBM's help text based on their ownindividual needs. As users become more familiar with PMDBM and withoffline mail readers in general, some of the help text can be removedor trimmed down in order to reduce disk use. Or a user might chooseto use this method of making certain information always readilyavailable.Unpack HELP FileThis option takes the current indexed help files and creates aneditable (almost typed edible) file called PMDBM.HLP. The resultingtext file contains all the current help text in an editable form.Editing PMDBM.HLPWhile you can edit this file, there are a couple of formattingconventions which you must observe. Making a backup of the PMDBMHLP.*files would be advisable prior to modifying help.~Please note too that any Help file issued with subsequent versionsmay differ in content from the current version. Unless the versionyou are using is a final 'Official' release, you may wish to waitfor such a version before proceeding with modifications to your helpfiles.Tilde CharacterOne special character, the tilde (~) is used to indicate 1 of 2things. The first meaning applies on non-numbered lines, while adifferent interpretation is used on the numbered lines. In eithercase, the character must appear in the 3rd column.~Firstly, PMDBM's help feature discards any blank lines while the fileis being converted into an indexed help file. This allows you toinsert as many blank lines as you like during the editing process.But if you wish a blank line to actually be displayed at a particularpoint, you must precede the subsequent non-numbered line with thespecial tilde character and this character MUST be in the 3rdcharacter position on the line.~Secondly, certain items are displayed by HELP based on the headingname. These numbered items are flagged by the Tilde character, in thethird character position, in order to indicate this to you. While youmay change these titles, doing so will mean that HELP will be unableto find them, and will be forced to display the previous level '1'help screen instead.~Since, in this second instance, PMDBM itself ignores the Tilde, andit is only there for your reference, removing them would cause noadverse effects.Level NumbersMany of the entries will contain a number in the first 2 columns.These numbers identify the line as a Title line and identify thevarious topics and help levels. They also define how the help text isto be layered. Apart from the level numbers, the first 2 columns mustnever contain any other data. Entries with the first 2 columns blankare considered to be textual information for the most recent title.~A level number of '1' designates a top level menu, for which aspecial index entry is created so that it can be called directly fromwithin PMDBM. Though the text may be modified, THESE ENTRIES SHOULDNOT BE REMOVED OR RE-NUMBERED nor should new level '1' entries beadded.~When displaying the help text, PMDBM will use the value of the itemcurrently being displayed to determine what items are to be providedas sub-options, based on the numeric values of the following items.~As long as the number of the subsequent items is greater than thenumber of the currently displayed item, PMDBM' Help will continuesearching and building it's layers. As soon as HELP encounters anumber which is less than or equal to the currently displayed entry,it stops searching. This means that if the currently displayed itemis a level 2 item, PMDBM will keep searching for level 3 items untilit finds another level 2 item or a level 1 item.~Although PMDBM finds all items with a number greater than thecurrently displayed item, it will only display for selection thoseitems whose numbers are exactly 1 greater than the current item. Thismeans that if a level 2 item is being displayed, only level 3 itemswill be available as 'additional help'. Accordingly, only when a level3 item is selected, is the title for any associated level 4 itemdisplayed.~All of the above holds true, except for the very first level 1 item.In the case of the very first level 1 item, PMDBM assumes that it isthe main entry point into the help system and when displaying it, itwill also select all other level 1 items as options for additionalhelp, in addition to any of the level 2 items which would normally bedisplayed.Possible ProblemsPMDBM will load all help text for a particular section into memoryprior to displaying it. If the help text for any section is too long,an 'Out of String Space' error may occur. The chances of this occurringare higher on systems which have limited free base memory (the first640k).~Still, the chances of this error occurring are not great, since PMDBMshould be able to support in excess of 32000 characters per section.Personally, I haven't run into this problem so am not sure at whatpoint the limit will be exceeded - it may even be closer to 60000.~It may also be possible that this problem could also if thereare too many help levels in a particular section. Again, I haven'trun into this and have used as many as 5 levels without problem andexpect that many more could be added safely.Pack HELP fileThis option takes a valid PMDBM.HLP file and converts it into theindexed files which PMDBM actually uses. Of course, you need tocreate a valid PMDBM.HLP with the 'Unpack Help' option before youcan do a pack.
