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╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ QWK-TXT ║
║ ~~~~~~~~~ ║
║ Version 1.0 ║
║ ║
║ An ASCII translation utility for ║
║ '.QWK' compatible mail files. ║
║ ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝
Copyright (c) 1991 - Richard D. Howard
17522 Vandenberg Lane #6
Tustin, California 92680
voice (714) 544-0772
License Agreement
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This program is being distributed as 'Freeware'. You are
encouraged to freely distribute the QWK-TXT product under the
conditions that no changes are made to the program, data, or
documentation, and provided that no fees are charged.
The QWK-TXT software, manual, and associated files are protected
by United States copyright law and international treaties, and
under no condition should any portion be considered in the public
domain.
The author makes no claims as to the suitability of QWK-TXT for
any particular purpose, and assumes no liability for any damages
arising from the deficiencies, use or misuse of the program.
Trademarks Mentioned
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
IBM is a trademark of International Business Machines, Inc.
MS-DOS is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Turbo Pascal, Turbo C, Turbo Assembler, Turbo Debugger, and BGI
are all trademarks of Borland International.
All other trademarks and registered names are the property of
their respective owners.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
7/15/91 QWK-TXT v1.0 Page 1
Program Overview
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QWK-TXT is a translation utility designed to read '.QWK' formatted
mail into a simple ASCII format. The resulting ASCII file may
then be easily viewed with one of the many popular ASCII viewing
utilities such as Vernon Buerg's 'LIST.COM ', or a hard-copy
printout created with any device supporting the full set of IBM
graphic characters.
QWK-TXT writes the '.QWK' format data with all the message header
information fully expanded, and integrates the BBS name and
phone number as supplied in the packet control file by each BBS.
The program performs NO extraneous message formatting beyond
stripping the '.QWK' added white space at the end of each message,
and places NO limitations on the length or width of the messages.
I have attempted to simplify browsing of messages by surrounding
the body of each message with double linedraw characters in the
top, left, and bottom margins. This combined with the boxing
of the message headers allows for easier visual identification of
specific elements, particularly when quickly scanning message
posts. (At least for me...)
Provisions have been made for post-translation browsing using any
of the windowing ASCII viewers incorporating on-screen frames and
scroll bars by holding the right margin of headers to 78 columns.
This allows ALL of the normal message information to be displayed
on one standard 80 column screen without requiring horizontal
scrolling.
This was my first (educational) foray into the land of '.QWK', and
though QWK-TXT is currently quite modest, I believe you'll find it
useful. Future plans include the addition of optional message
sorting, filtering based on conference or included strings, and
possibly user customizable header styles. Input is welcome.
Limitations
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QWK-TXT has been in daily use as my primary '.QWK' archive method
for about six months, and has proven quite stable. If you do
find some bug, please contact me and I'll attempt to squash it.
QWK-TXT has a known theoretical limit on the number of concurrent
conferences. If anyone knows of a single BBS having over 3364
conferences, first encourage the SYSOP to seek psychiatric help and
then contact me about possible modifications.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
7/15/91 QWK-TXT v1.0 Page 2
Installation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The QWT-TXT archive should contain the following files:
QWK-TXT.EXE........Program executable.
QWK-TXT.TXT........Program documentation.
To install QWK-TXT, copy the ENTIRE contents of the archive to the
main directory of your offline mail reader. Insert a call to
QWK-TXT in the section of your reader configuration that allows
external commands to be run from within the reader. External
programs are generally accessed with an assigned "hot key", such
as a shifted function key. Choose the key combination that is
most convenient for you.
Several offline mail readers offer the option of swapping part of
their program code to extended memory, expanded memory, or disk
when calling external programs. The use of such an option
with QWK-TXT is unnecessary, and may in fact introduce a noticable
delay in accessing the program. If you wish to use this type
of feature, consult the offline reader documentation.
Keep in mind that most mail readers make a working copy of the
mail packets as they read them. This copy is generally placed
in a subdirectory beneath the main mail reader directory. If
this is the case with your offline reader, you can specify that
the QWK-TXT program is to be executed from the parent directory by
prefixing the program name with "..\" in the command line call.
For instance, the command line:
..\QWK-TXT
would execute the QWK-TXT program from the parent of the current
directory using the default files.
QWK-TXT is primarily designed to be used from a shell within one
of the many popular offline '.QWK' mail readers. As such, it
expects all the '.QWK' data files to be readily accessable. If
you wish to use this utility outside of a mail reader, it's up to
YOU to make the data files available by unarchiving the '.QWK'
mail packet before use.
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
7/15/91 QWK-TXT v1.0 Page 3
Program Usage
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
QWK-TXT [/H] [<outfile>] [<infile>] [<bbsfile>]
/H is an optional switch displaying a help screen.
<outfile> is an optional parameter specifying the
fully qualified name of the output file. QWK-TXT
appends the message text to this file. If none
is specified 'MESSAGES.TXT' will be used, and
automatically overwritten.
<infile> is an optional parameter specifying the
fully qualified name of the input file. If none
is specified 'MESSAGES.DAT' is used.
<bbsfile> is an optional parameter specifying the
fully qualified name of the bbs packet control
file. If none is specified 'CONTROL.DAT' is used.
QWK-TXT may be run at any time after selecting a mail packet
in your reader. Simply hit the previously defined key
and the current packet will be translated to ASCII.
QWK-TXT runs "silently", displaying only a copyright notice and
noting any abnormal conditions on the console. If you wish,
the program may be truly silenced by redirecting even this meager
output to the DOS 'NUL' device, thusly:
QWK-TXT <outfile> <infile> <control> > nul
Errors
~~~~~~~~
If QWK-TXT encounters any serious errors, it attempts to exit
gracefully and sets the DOS 'ERRORLEVEL' variable to one of the
following codes:
╔═══════╤══════════════════════════╗
║ Code │ Meaning ║
╟───────┼──────────────────────────╢
║ 0 │ Normal exit ║
╟───────┼──────────────────────────╢
║ 1 │ File does not exist ║
╟───────┼──────────────────────────╢
║ 2 │ Error opening file ║
╟───────┼──────────────────────────╢
║ 3 │ Error writing file ║
╟───────┼──────────────────────────╢
║ 4 │ Out of memory ║
╚═══════╧══════════════════════════╝
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
7/15/91 QWK-TXT v1.0 Page 4